Tesla Quietly Disconnecting Radar in Customer Cars During Service Visits
thedrive.com
thedrive.com
"They also can't follow other vehicles quite as closely, with the following distance kicked back from one car length to two, meaning that it is easier for other vehicles to sneak ahead of them in traffic."
I'm not sure exactly how to interpret this, but at highway speeds, like from 55-85 mph, Honda's adaptive cruise control allows the following distance to be set from roughly 100 to 300 feet.
An "average" car length seems to be about 15 feet, so that converts to 7-20 car lengths.
If Teslas really do allow following other cars at 1-2 car lengths at, say, 75 mph, that's a bit startling. I can't say I've seen one doing it though.
“Each setting corresponds to a time-based distance that represents how long it takes for Model 3, from its current location, to reach the location of the rear bumper of the vehicle ahead of you”
I think it might have been in the past, at least I was told the same thing years ago.
That said, it is actually an issue that it now keeps too much distance under some conditions on the lowest setting.
Changing lanes is "sneaking" now? Does somebody really think we need autonomous driving trained to block other cars from safely switching lanes?
Do owners that bought a car with a radar-based safety system have any recourse if they don't consent to the software & hardware disable of the radar system?
Tesla was sentenced to pay me a small compensation ($800) for not getting proper consent for the update, but refuse to do so. I’ll have to take them to court to get it.
[1] https://www.bilklage.dk/CMS/Upload/1/Documents/Anonymiserede... (in Danish)
At what sort of speeds is this available?
The British driving exam and driving code says a distance of 6 car lengths is appropriate for ~50km/h (30mph), in dry weather. Anything faster, wetter or at night needs more distance.
In Germany, the rule of thumb (based on reaction times) that's also taught in driving school for normal weather and road conditions during the day is "Halber Tacho" [1], i.e. at least half your speed (in km/h) as safety distance (in meters).
Example: driving at 100km/h the minimum safety distance to have is 50m, the distance at which the "Leitpfosten" [2] ("delineator"?) are usually fixed along the roadside.
[1]: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicherheitsabstand#Ermittlung_... , translated: https://de-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Sicherheitsab...
[2]: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leitpfosten , translated: https://de-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Leitpfosten?_...
I had to look up the name of the Leitpfosten in English, "distance marker posts". They're at 100m intervals on motorways (I knew that bit).
A different style is called "hazard markers" or "hazard marker posts" and used only where appropriate. There are also snow poles on some roads, mostly in Scotland. I can't see any specified distance for either type.
[1] §126 of https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/control-of-the-vehicle.html
(The odd mixture of units is consistent with normal British usage, as is the construction of the road in metres but the signing of it in "yards" (often actually metres).)
Hopefully that works out well. :)
It sounds like it could establish a precedent for others to follow in response to Teslas' behaviour.
Having failed to find an avenue to even get a reply from Tesla’s customer services when they overcharged me (luckily for a relatively trivial amount) I’d like to donate any Tesla karma I’ve built up to you
I was curious so I followed your link. Google Translate says this: "Since there is no information available that provides a basis for assuming that the car is defective after the update full, the complaint cannot be upheld."
So it seems that the requirement would be to prove that the change is actually a defect. This sounds reasonable to me in principle, though I wonder if the burden of proof should actually be on the other side if the consumer has no choice but to accept the update.
It looks like the fine issued was a default judgement on the basis that you weren't adequately informed of the change and that they didn't try to contest that?
(P.S. The radar-based Teslas actually kind of work while the vision-based ones are a disaster, so you're wrong on the facts as well as on the principle.)
AP1 only has one camera, and then has sonar and radar.