Submitted by justin on June 12, 2018
I'm in the UK. My software update (2018.21.9) completed this morning. 2018 Model S 100D.
On an 'A' road drive today in dry, clear weather using Autopilot on a stretch of straight, clear, flat well marked road at 40mph the car suddenly and for no apparent reason tried to swerve off the road sharply, I had to grab the wheel (my hands always rest lightly on the wheel while AP is engaged) quickly to get the car back on track. This happened twice 45 minutes apart in similar conditions.
There was no break in the white lines and no apparent reason for it to do this.
The first time the passenger nearly had a heart attack - the second she informed me that she'd like to me to 'stop the car so that she could get out now please'.
My cautious relationship with this initially exciting function has now come to an end.
Now I'm worried. My wife has been reading the forums, and suggested I trade in my car for one with AP.
The way I view AP is primarily a limited access freeway tool. I do use it on local roads occasionally but my expectations of it for that application are very low and I expect them to stay there for quite some time.
For freeway driving I’ve found it to be very good especially in traffic.
Tea score please!
I think attempted murder is a lesser charge than premeditated. LOL. My latest firmware now wants me to touch the wheel every 20 seconds. I used to complain about the two minute warning.
"I had to grab the wheel quickly to get the car back on track."
From the owners manual:
You must keep your hands on the steering
wheel at all times.
Is there some part of this you don't understand?
justin,
Can we get some more information? What is the version you are on? Was the road a highway or local road? Etc..
I am a HUGE Tesla fan, but have stopped using my beloved Autopilot after upgrading to 2018.21.9
It simply is a huge step backwards, even on well marked divided highways.
Nag is annoying, and steering wheel does not recognize my hands on the wheel. If I rock the wheel enough to avoid warnings it turns off. Pretty unusable for me in it's current state.
I used to love using it, and took pride in learning when to let it navigate and when I needed to switch to manual.
Stopped showing it off to friends.
Will be driving on manual for now, hoping it gets better with the next update :(
Been seeing way too many of these threads after the June 9 update.
I'm not using AP at all until this gets resolved.
Just my luck, when I finally got the update, I haven't had much opportunity to use AP because of different routes I'm taking. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.
Haven't noticed any nags yet. For those that are having excessive nags, I hope you realize that tightly gripping the wheel is not really detected, only a slight turning resistance is detected. Just about the weight of your hand on the left or right side is usually enough to eliminate nags. If you place your hand on the top or bottom of the steering wheel, you're far more likely to get nags as it is harder to apply significant circular torque (but not impossible).
Other than the more frequent nags, has the recent update caused any autopilot regressions in AP1 cars? I just updated my AP1 S85 to 2018.21.9 but haven't had a chance to drive it yet.
I’m with you, Silver. Sorry, but I have a hard time believing any of the OP’s post. I bet his name isn’t even Justin.
Douglas Adams — 'I don't believe it. Prove it to me and I still won't believe it.'
@Gibson27. I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the poster's remarks if I were you. Something similar happened to me a few weeks ago while driving to work from San Diego to Los Angeles on a weekend at about 0500 hrs in the morning. I had the TACC/AP engaged at 80 mph when I came upon a gently sweeping bend to the left.
Quite unexpectedly, the AP kicked off and the car veered into the next lane to the right, and would have continued crossing into the next lane after that had I not quickly taken over. Forty minutes later, on yet another gentle bend in the freeway the slowed down abruptly for no reason at all, to about 60 mph, before speeding up again. I'm thinking it might have been fooled by a truck at our one o'clock position in the adjacent to the right.
I didn't bother submitting a bug report using the right scroll wheel because this has never worked for me, and I think read somewhere that this function is no longer available.
Wholeheartedly agree with the OP. I’m in the UK too and three times in 2 days the car jerks severely to the left when passing an exit or such like, even with no break in the line. Never happened before. For the first time since owning the car I’m very untrusting of Autopilot. HW2 2018.21.9. Previously on 2018.18.2 which was far, far superior.