Tag: car update

Recently I was driving home and I couldn’t engage Autopilot. I kept seeing the availability icon come and go, and found this interesting, but also a sign of why Level 4 or 5 is likely hard to solve in a general way.

This is part of a series that covers my experience with a Tesla Model Y.

Denver Sun

When I first moved to Denver, I was driving down I-25 early one morning. There was a stretch that turned East and was blinded. It felt like the sun was directly in front of me on the horizon. This is something that I’ve gotten used to a few times a year, as the sun seems to be at a lower angle than I see anywhere else in the world.

My Tesla Model Y, Long Range (MYLR) apparently had the same problem this week. I was out early to town and ended up coming home around 8am. Driving East, the sun was low and seemed to be coming directly into the car. Fortunately it was slightly to the right, so I could see straight ahead. This is a section of road that I often engage autopilot as it’s got some ups and downs, is fairly quiet with a median, and I like letting the car control the drive.

However, when I engaged Autopilot (AP) I got the alert that it wasn’t available. I glanced down and saw the icon, which indicates AP is available, so I assumed maybe I’d done it at a place where there weren’t lines. The icon disappears in intersections or other places where the car doesn’t see lines immediately.

I tried again and the same thing happened. As I glanced down a few times, I’d see the icon come and then go. I looked out and realized that I could barely see the lines in the center of the road because of the glare.

This continued for a few minutes until the road turned left further and a large hill shaded the road. I engaged AP and it handled the rest of the drive out to the road that turns toward my house. Once engaged, it seemed to do well, even on a few hills where the glare was strong, though not as strong as it was leaving town.

Radar and Lidar

There are a number of situations and places where I think that lack of radar or lidar would help. This isn’t one of them. Unless radar is painting the painted lines in the middle of the road, it wouldn’t solve this problem.

Conclusion

In a city, or even suburb, where the roads are well mapped, this might not be a problem. In a neighborhood, or place where cars might park on the street, then perhaps radar could help, but vision is vision, and it’s not something that a computer can necessarily do better. Humans make mistakes with glare and blinding light, and cars that depend on vision can do the same thing.

Actually, I think the recognition of visual artifacts ( shadows, glare, etc.) is slower and more difficult for computers than humans. Humans will also make mistakes, but like many, I think I have less tolerance for computers making the same mistakes. Not sure that’s rational, but I do feel that way.

This is a reason that I think L4 or L5 isn’t easy, or likely, outside of highly mapped and geo-fenced areas.

Not part of my Tesla series, but this is related as I had an interesting electric car experience while traveling in London.

This is part of a series that covers my experience with a Tesla Model Y.

Booking Uber

I have known people using Teslas as taxis or Ubers, and I rode in one in Antwerp, but it was luck of the draw. The same thing happened in London, but it was a more interesting experience.

I was staying at Heathrow Airport, which is well West of London. I had an engagement in the center of London, at the Tower Bridge. A Google map shows this to be a 20 mile journey, but 90 minutes, traffic is bad. In a gas car, without enough fuel, this could be disconcerting. However, it works well for electric cars since minimal power is lost sitting in traffic.

Outbound East

It was an all electric day in London. I booked an Uber from LHR to the Tower Bridge. As it happened there was a Kia e-Niro that responded quickly. I got in and started chatting with the driver. He had been using the car for 10 months as an Uber and was very happy.

The car drove well, was well sized for 4 adults. I think 5 would be cramped a bit as it’s narrower than the Model Y. It was fairly comfortable for me in the back, but the seats were a little thinner and harder than Tesla seats. The car had quick acceleration but not Tesla quick. I’m glad as the driver would quickly accelerate when there was space in roads and Tesla levels would have me jerking around.

The finish felt a little cheaper and definitely not luxurious. Not sure it’s worth it. Starting at $40, maybe. Perhaps the $45 Premium is better, and since a Model Y is now $60, perhaps. I have to think more about this.

The driver said range was 200-220 for him and the cat had worked well as an Uber. He could go quite a few hours before charging and there was plenty of places to charge. He said charging was about 0.50p UK per kW, so for his 60Wh batter, that’s 30 pounds sterling. Not cheap, but a lot cheaper than petrol. He also said that he tended to run to about 20% and charge to 70-80, depending on time. Usually having a coffee and a short walking break. Not a bad idea.

Returning West

My return was a Nissan Leaf. Again, I didn’t pick this, it just happened to be close. It’s still 20ish miles, but a 90 minute drive from the Tower Bridge. I have a friend with an older Leaf, which gets about 80 miles on a charge, but the newer ones go over 150miles.

This driver wasn’t fazed. He’s had his over a year and it works for him. Again, he takes a few fares, then stops for coffee and charging. This was definitely a smaller and cheaper car, with much less acceleration, or at least the driver didn’t bother trying to hurry. The finish was cheaper, and felt like an economy car.

I haven’t been sure these cars would make sense for constant use but these two were finding ways to make it work. Apparently there is good charging infrastructure in London that works well enough for people to use electric cabs.

Recently I was traveling out of town and rented a car. Actually, I was gone twice, and I wanted to compare cruise control in the rental with Tesla’s Traffic Aware Cruise Control (TACC). I’ll do two cars in this post: a 2021 Ford Explorer and a 2018/2019 Chrysler 300.

This is part of a series that covers my experience with a Tesla Model Y.

The Ford Explorer

My wife really liked the Explorer. We rented one a few years ago and she really enjoyed it, so when I went to New York, with a 2 1/2 drive to see my daughter, I grabbed a Limited, 2021 version.

This had adaptive cruise control, which watches the car in front of you and tries to match the speed of it. The cruise felt clunky. You press a button to enable it, then a toggle will raise of lower the limit. Getting this up or down was clunky, pressing it multiple times. I was often on roads where the speed changed quickly from 55 to 45 to 30, and I could hold down the toggle, or click it. For 55 to 45, I wasn’t sure which was better as I sometime held it too long and got to 40.

I didn’t see how to change following distance. That was something I’d want to do when I’m following a large dump truck with gravel. Don’t want to be too close.

However, this slows smoothly and speeds up quickly. At least compared to the Tesla. However, it’s not perfect.

There was a stretch of road that bended to the right (US, right side drive). A car in front of my slipped into the left lane for a left turn, so as I came up on the turn, I was heading straight towards the car. The road would lead me past, but the car started to emergency slow, and I had to press the accelerator to keep going and not have cars behind me stack up.

A linear view of the world works well for cruise control in many situations but not all.

Tesla TACC

Tesla gives you Traffic Aware Cruise Control as a part of the basic package. This is easy to use, but not great.

Enabling this is easy, pulling down  on the right stalk once (twice is Autosteer). This set the car at the current speed plus whatever offset you’ve configured. If I want to change following distance, the right scroll wheel on the steering wheel can be clicked left or right to change the number of car lengths.

However, cruise can be annoying. The acceleration is slow. Most cars pull away substantially quicker at any speed and the Tesla is slow to catch up. It also can be slow to recognize cars in front of me and gets a little too close at times (for my comfort) before slowing.

It lags, which isn’t comforting.

However, the situations on turns aren’t a problem. At least fairly rarely. The Tesla recognizes another lane and keeps cruising. There is some phantom braking, but not a lot. It’s definitely gotten better in a year.

Perhaps the part that I really don’t like is the Tesla reads speed limit signs. At times, especially in CO, there are speed signs for the exits that are a little too close to the highway. They are yellow instead of white, but if I’m in the right lane, I’ve had the car think the highway is a 45 all of a sudden and brake. Or think it’s a 55 on a 65mph road.

That I don’t like.

Basic Chrysler Cruise

This is like my BMW X5. It sets a speed and follows it. Doesn’t slow down and will hit a car in front of you.

I hate this now.

I rarely used it in Hawaii because of the lack of watching cars in front and there being plenty of traffic. I needed to focus more, so I decided this wasn’t helpful. Also, not a lot of hills in Hawaii, which is where I appreciate it more.

I do use this in my BMW, but usually only when I’m on rural roads with no traffic. In Hawaii, it felt old and less useful. I definitely don’t like the old style cruise control in traffic.

Final Thoughts

I like the Tesla idea, but the execution is poor. If the car sped up quicker and slowed down quicker (using radar to measure distance), I could live with the occasional slow down for a speed limit sign.  However, the lag is frustrating to me, and other drives, so it’s less useful than I’d like.

I felt the Adaptive on the Ford worked well enough that it was a smooth drive, other than a few sweeping turn slowdowns.

This is part of a series that covers my experience with a Tesla Model Y.

I noticed a problem on the driver seat of my Tesla a month or so ago. The trim piece around the side of the seat was loose. It appears a piece of the trim cracked off.

I picked the Service tab in the app and started to schedule things. I went through a couple menus to note this was interior to the car and a seat issue, then typed a few sentences to describe the issue. I uploaded this picture, and then was given the option to schedule service at one of the service centers.

Apparently this didn’t qualify for mobile service, which is fine. I picked one of the service centers near me (both about the same distance) and scheduled a date and time about a week out. I could have picked a time 3 days out, but that didn’t work in my schedule.

Communication

I got a few messages in the app during the week. First, one a day later to ask that I confirm I still want the appointment. A day or two later, they sent a note asking which seat, to confirm the driver seat. Then they sent an estimate of US$58, though noting this might be covered under warranty.

I approved them all as I assume I can argue the warranty thing in person.

I also got a note the day before that they were thinking this might take a couple hours with their load and letting me know that they were giving me ride share credits.

The Appointment

The morning of, I drove to the service center. I parked the car, and as I walked up, I checked the app. A new message showing me how to get a rideshare credit with Uber. No loaners, but that is nice.

I checked in with the reception person and then walked away. No need to give them a key. Apparently they have geo-fenced service keys for the Tesla Service Centers. Cool, also slightly disconcerting.

In any case, I worked for an hour and then had another appointment, so I called an Uber.

When I returned to Tesla, I realized I didn’t have my wallet, so I wanted to grab it. I went in the app to check the location and saw this:

Interesting. The car is in service and I can’t see app functions. I walked over to where I’d parked and it was still there. My phone worked as a key, and I could get in, but an “About” screen was visible, not the normal view. Also, a notice that the car was speed limited at this time, which is probably a good thing when techs are 20-something and have the opportunity to test a Plaid Model S for some reason.

In any case, glad I could get my wallet for lunch instead of playing the “where will my NFC phone work” game.

I went to lunch and about 30 minutes later I got a text that there was a message in the app. I checked and they said my car was done. They provided a message that told me where the car was located. I walked over, checked the repair (looked great) and drove away without talking to anyone at the end.

The repair was covered under warranty and I got an invoice for $0.00 in the app.

All in all a good, albeit slow, experience.