2018.20 Autosteering (Continued)
Just like the car constantly being updated via over-the-air releases, my experience of the releases is constantly changing as I experience more of the variability that exists out on the road. While it's true that the Autosteer is much improved in many ways, I've also come across perhaps a few over corrections recently.
Slow Going
The car has gotten more agressive in how it takes turns. Yes, it still does not drive exactly the same as a human, but when it detects a turn, it seems to prepare to turn earlier and even seems to move to the side a bit to allow for a gentler turn. Possibly one extreme example of this strategy happened yesterday in slow (stop-and-go traffic moving at below 10MPH the whole time). Around a right bend on a serpentine road, the car navigated to a roughly 45° attack on the central yellow line, and as traffic allowed, began inching towards it. I expected it to straighten out, but perhaps because it could only move a small amount each time, it moved closer, and closer without having straightend out until it had actually crossed over the line. On-coming traffic started to appear, which meant I had to cut the experiment short, without waiting to see how it might recover; surprisingly, the drive display knew it was going over the line (based on where it was recognizing the lane), and had not disabled autopilot or even warned about crossing the lane.
Parked Things
Tesla continues to make the news about hitting parked things: most recently a police car, before that a fire truck. I've noticed after the recent update (although maybe it's just coïncidence) that the car is more sensitive about cars parked on the "side" of the road, where "side" here means encroaching on-or-over the shoulder. One example is a school bus I've been passing for over a month on my way into work. While it waits to start its route, sits on the side of the road. My Model X, Pensive, started seeing the school bus with (I believe) 2018.14.2 or the update after that. With 2018.20, it now slams-on emergency breaks and warning about five meters from the stationary vehicle. It does something similar to vehicles (pick-ups and a Model S) that park along the street in front of a house having renovations done.
I've sometimes wondered where I should be keeping my right foot while on auto-pilot: should it be over the break, in case it suddenly increases speed (which the car still tends to do for various reasons)? After experience a lot more sudden breaking, I've decided that my foot should continue to be exactly where it'd be without adaptive cruise control, and ready to accelerate or break as needed. Also, it's abundantly clear that Autopilot should not be used with pregnant women in the car given the risk of the aggressive and unnecessary breaking.