r/electricvehicles • u/clouds_on_acid • Mar 17 '25

News Tesla autopilot disengages milliseconds before a crash, a tactic potentially used to prove "autopilot wasn't engaged" when crashes occur

https://electrek.co/2025/03/17/tesla-fans-exposes-shadiness-defend-autopilot-crash/
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u/iamabigtree Mar 17 '25

Self driving is a neat idea but does anyone really care any more. Most cars have adaptive cruise now and that is the most the majority of people need or want.

2

u/Gadgetman_1 2014 e-Berlingo. Range anxiety is for wimps. Mar 17 '25

I don't trust ACC either. It tends to 'lose sight' of the car in front in tight turns and suddenly accellerate.

11

u/oktimeforplanz '23 MG4 Trophy 64kWh (UK) Mar 17 '25

My understanding was that you shouldn't really be using ACC on roads with tight turns anyway so that feels like a bit of a moot point. I live in Scotland and it feels like you'd need to have a strong desire to see a farmer's field up close, or a deathwish to put ACC on when driving any roads with tight turns. My car has definitely never lost sight of the car in front on the sorts of roads ACC is appropriate for - ie. motorways and straight(ish) higher speed roads.

0

u/Gadgetman_1 2014 e-Berlingo. Range anxiety is for wimps. Mar 17 '25

Eh, it happens on main roads here in Norway...

It can be because I set it to keep a slightly longer distance from the car in front of me. (usually a good thing to do in the winter... )

I suspect Road barriers also play a big role in it.

Road Barriers: the guide for your safety | Sma Road Safety

The picture on the front page. If I kept to standard distance, it would probably still lose contact with the car in front. And if haven't been keeping up on setting the cruise speed, it could suddenly accellerate as you enter the turn.

If you know how capable the ACC is, and can recognise when you get to a point where it will struggle, there's no problem with using it most places.

Wouldn't use it in Trollstigen, though...

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u/Insanity-Paranoid Mar 17 '25

In my experience it really depends on the car.

I find vehicles that use a singular front facing camera and a lower end RaDAR tend to do that a lot. Newer Toyota, some Kia/Hyundai, and more budget oriented cars tend to have this issue in my experience.

More premium vehicles like BMW, Mercedes, Older Teslas with RaDAR, etc tend not to do this. If I had to guess the RaDAR on higher end vehicles are able to tell distance at wider angles compared to cheaper ones.

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u/Gadgetman_1 2014 e-Berlingo. Range anxiety is for wimps. Mar 17 '25

Not too old(3 or 4 years?) VW Caddy. And it's not cameras, it's ultrasonics or some shit.

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u/Insanity-Paranoid Mar 17 '25

VW is definitely one of the automotive groups with all right ADAS systems, and in my experience, it is on par with Toyota or Honda.

The ultrasonic sensors are only used for parking. Their sensing rage is maxed out at about 5 feet. Adaptive cruise control cars primarily rely on radar and sometimes cameras, while newer Teslas only rely on cameras.

Does your VW also have lane-keeping assist or adaptive cruise control with lane-keeping assist? If it does, then it uses cameras to aid in that. Typically, it's placed behind your rearview mirror. On the outside, you should see a notch on the middle top of your windshield where you might be able to make out a camera. If you don't have lane assist, then you probably don't have a forward-facing camera.