Phantom Braking: Experienced in the MachE for the First Time (7 months in)

[jojomontag]

There is no doubt in my mind that within the next 6-10yrs we will have fully automous driving. There is too big of a push for it, at least the way things are going now. Tesla's latest beta is pretty impressive. Sure it still has a ton of room for improvement, but their R&D is really moven.

To get a little close to topic, I had the opposite of ghost braking this morning. Was on the 94 heading to work with all the driver assists turned on and cruise set to 75. For some reason out of the blue the traffic in front of me full stopped. I saw all the brake lights come on and the car in front of me had yet to touch the brake. I went ahead and took over braking pretty hard and ended up stopping about a car length away. Never got any type of alerts, even when the car behind me was about 2" from my bumper. I saw her coming up quick, I actually let off the brake to allow the car to move up a little, otherwise I think I would had been rear ended.

Was kind of surprised I did not get any type of impact warnings. I'm curious if the car would had handled that situation, but at the same time I did not want to try and find out lol

It may be possible if all cars are autonomous because they would likely be more predictable than the nut jobs on the road today (not counting people who suffer medicle emergencies while driving). But the speed sign sensors cannot be relied upon for it. It will require up-to-date GPS/mapping.

I know the Mach E is not autonomous, nor will it be. BlueCruise is not a fully autonomous function. I am just using the warnings found in the manual to make it clear that there are major problems with technology that need to be fixed before autonomous could be fully possible.

Also wanted to make it clear that we cannot trust our Mach Es, or any other car with ICC. You have to use those features as if you were walking through a crowded airport: keep your hands on your valuables and watch for any suspicious activity. If you don't, you'll be sorry (if you live).

I also understand that Waymo has fully autonomous cars with a great safety record, and hopefully that continues. The few accidents they have had were the fault of another driver. Of course, riders cannot make changes based on their preferences, which helps those vehicles to operate safely. That would have to be a non-negotiable for a fully autonomous vehicle: the owner/operator should not be permitted to adjust speed and distance tolerances. In the end, it's the drivers that do not abide by the laws of the road that pose the greatest danger.

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[Timelessblur]

Intelligent. Hmmm. Good point. Although I am fairly certain I was on 65mph stretch with my car set at 75 (which I have allotted in settings).

Based on the time of day you said if could of been either a speed limit sign it miss read or another possiblity is some how the sun light reflected just right to cause the camera to think their was something there that it was not and it responded by braking.
I know they tend to error on the side of an object being in front of them instead of overriding it if say the radar does not match up to what the front camera is saying. It always assumes smashing into something is the most likely.
That or miss read the speed limit sign.
I know both on my Mach E and my old honda crosstour the Front collision warmings have gone off when the sun hit the front facing camera just right. Freaks me out but mix that with an intengenic cruise control I could see it slamming on the brakes.

 

[littlD]

There's a reason why BlueCruise and SuperCruise both check for the driver paying attention. These along with Tesla Basic Autopilot (not to be confused with FSD Beta) are all Level 2.

Gladly, Tesla is starting with 2021.32.5 to implement Driver Monitoring using the cabin camera. I've had it for over a week and looking forward to it making Autopilot a true hands free experience, albeit paying attention like I should with a level 2 system.

So far, I get up to 80 seconds of hands free until prompted to torque the wheel, almost 3x what it was before DMS.

 

[Maric]

Based on the time of day you said if could of been either a speed limit sign it miss read or another possiblity is some how the sun light reflected just right to cause the camera to think their was something there that it was not and it responded by braking.
I know they tend to error on the side of an object being in front of them instead of overriding it if say the radar does not match up to what the front camera is saying. It always assumes smashing into something is the most likely.
That or miss read the speed limit sign.
I know both on my Mach E and my old honda crosstour the Front collision warmings have gone off when the sun hit the front facing camera just right. Freaks me out but mix that with an intengenic cruise control I could see it slamming on the brakes.

My fear is getting rear ended because the car hard brakes for no reason at all at a high rate of speed. Definitely going to watch this more closely.

 

[hybrid2bev]

My fear is getting rear ended because the car hard brakes for no reason at all at a high rate of speed. Definitely going to watch this more closely.

Me too. That's why I turned off ICC and just use ACC so I control the cruise speed.

 

[StGenevieveEclipse]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I just had this happen tonight, Adaptive rather than Intellegent cruise. Middle lane, straightaway, no cars in front of me, set to 68, suddenly the car hit the brakes. I rapidly hit the gas (my foot was already there) and the guy behind me didnt have to do any evasion.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I just had this happen tonight, Adaptive rather than Intellegent cruise. Middle lane, straightaway, no cars in front of me, set to 68, suddenly the car hit the brakes. I rapidly hit the gas (my foot was already there) and the guy behind me didnt have to do any evasion.

Hi there! Will you send us a message with your VIN and your local Ford dealer? I can look into things on my end.

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