Lane Keeping, ACC, darkness, and rain

[jhalkias]

Had something new happen this morning, and I will be curious to see if any of you see this in the future. Lane keeping with ACC has been pretty much flawless for me. Works great, other than nagging me to hold the wheel when I already have a hand on the wheel - just not applying any torque because I never need to. Makes me wonder why they can't just use the eye tracking with ACC and lane keeping - other than those areas it gets confused sometimes with lines.

Anyway, raining pretty steady (but not an absolute downpour) and dark. I had to turn off lane keeping because it started ping-ponging me in the lane. I think that water drops on the camera with the darkness and other lights started refracting and confusing the camera about where the lines were. I do have RainX on the windows, and do not extensively use wipers, but I did try turning on the wipers and it didn't seem to mitigate it much. Once I got to an area where the rain was more of a mist it was fine again. (pun intended)

Anyone else seeing this? Someone else mentioned that the Lane keeping only uses the center camera, which probably can get confused more easily in bad weather.

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[ChasingCoral]

I had the same thing happen during heavy daytime rain in NC driving home last week. Chatting with the service manager at Koons, he said the lane centering entirely uses the center camera behind the mirror. Too much rain or fog kills its abilities and the system will tell you ACC is no longer active. That sensor is only wiped by the passenger side wiper blade. This issue has been seen in earlier Lincoln and Ford applications of this technology, too.

Basically, if rain or fog is severe, the car can't detect the lane markers.

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

I had the same thing happen during heavy daytime rain in NC driving home last week. Chatting with the service manager at Koons, he said the lane centering entirely uses the center camera behind the mirror. Too much rain or fog kills its abilities and the system will tell you ACC is no longer active. That sensor is only wiped by the passenger side wiper blade. This issue has been seen in earlier Lincoln and Ford applications of this technology, too.

Basically, if rain or fog is severe, the car can't detect the lane markers.

this is completely reasonable given the stated capabilities of the system today - but I wonder if this will improve this fall with the $500 optional upgrade. I would hope so.

 

[GrumblesTheDog]

I wonder if this would improve with any of the windshield water treatments -- RainX, Aquapel, etc. over the camera?

 

[jhalkias]

I wonder if this would improve with any of the windshield water treatments -- RainX, Aquapel, etc. over the camera?

All my glass has a double coat of RainX. I hardly use wipers, but then I turned them on when this was going on but it did not seem to help.

 

[hybrid2bev]

Haven't tried the ACC/Lane Centering in the rain, but I did at night on dry pavement. Works flawlessly at night!

 

[JellyBelly]

Yes noticeable that it’s not great in rain. Also the alert vibration even in highest setting is not noticeable.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Yes noticeable that it’s not great in rain. Also the alert vibration even in highest setting is not noticeable.

I notice it but would appreciate a stronger setting or distinct audible.

 

[jhalkias]

Well, yesterday was driving rain, and this morning was a blizzard. Welcome to Ohio!
Driving rain was bad enough on the systems. Snow and a blizzard like condition was MUCH worse. And this is no April Fool’s joke.
First lane keeping failed. It tried for a short period, and I got that same ping-ponging, then as the lanes were just a touch obscured (fine for the human eye though) it just outright failed.
Then the ACC failed along with the pre-collision assist. Sensor blocked - and here is the warning you get for both.

The kind of bad thing about this is that if you have your cruise control set to ACC, you totally lose cruise control. I don’t know if you can still use cruise control if it is NOT set to ACC, because I was too busy driving to dig through menus to change that setting. It also tells you to see the owner’s manual - not exactly easy or advisable when driving in bad weather. I tried using the washer (both front and rear) thinking this might clear the sensor, but it apparently is the radar sensor that got blocked.

When I got to the office I took a photo of the front of the car, and the front end is a snow magnet. The photo is a bit blurry because I was freezing and not looking for quality - but you get the picture.

 

[BIGBIGSURGE]

It happens in most cars with those features. My Tesla has turned off autopilot and other features in bad weather. It’s absolutely normal and you shouldn’t rely on the system during a storm.

 

[jhalkias]

It happens in most cars with those features. My Tesla has turned off autopilot and other features in bad weather. It’s absolutely normal and you shouldn’t rely on the system during a storm.

Pretty much the point of why I started this thread.

 

[BIGBIGSURGE]

 

[Illinibird]

Had something new happen this morning, and I will be curious to see if any of you see this in the future. Lane keeping with ACC has been pretty much flawless for me. Works great, other than nagging me to hold the wheel when I already have a hand on the wheel - just not applying any torque because I never need to. Makes me wonder why they can't just use the eye tracking with ACC and lane keeping - other than those areas it gets confused sometimes with lines.

Anyway, raining pretty steady (but not an absolute downpour) and dark. I had to turn off lane keeping because it started ping-ponging me in the lane. I think that water drops on the camera with the darkness and other lights started refracting and confusing the camera about where the lines were. I do have RainX on the windows, and do not extensively use wipers, but I did try turning on the wipers and it didn't seem to mitigate it much. Once I got to an area where the rain was more of a mist it was fine again. (pun intended)

Anyone else seeing this? Someone else mentioned that the Lane keeping only uses the center camera, which probably can get confused more easily in bad weather.

Happens to me in my 2016 Fusion and 2015 Acura MDX too. I have to scape snow/ice off where radar is for it to work again (ACC). As far as LKA, I haven’t had that fail yet as I don’t use it in a storm like that but rather use my own vision. I’m sure it would fail too..

 

[jhalkias]

So to be clear, the point of the thread is in inclement weather these systems fail and not to rely on them. Some of us have never owned a Tesla or a car with this much tech.

Which is also a reason that Tesla labeling a system as FSD or that your car will be a robotaxi someday is so much baloney. Not with these systems that rely on cameras and even radar that goes blind when a sensor is blocked in inclement weather.

TeslaStans you can feel free to attack now for me bringing it up.

 

[JSW]

It definitely gets wonky in the rain/snow. Frankly, I’m surprised it works as well as it does in inclement weather.

When it was still snowy, I had a spray bottle and squeegee in the garage next to the MMe to keep the center part clean.

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