Tesla can't tell if you are using a weight if they can't tell when you aren't using one. For some drivers, merely placing their hand on the wheel will provide enough weight to keep messages away. For others, it requires active tugging, even if they hold the wheel full time. The problem is that if putting pressure on the wheel is what's needed to keep Autopilot on, and putting pressure on the wheel is what's needed to override autosteer, then you are going to have drivers who get frustrated when not enough pressure won't stop the messages and adding more causes a disengagement. It's about time for Tesla to go by the camera exclusively instead of the steering wheel since they can't reliably tell anything by checking the steering wheel.
Those people who don't get persistent nags seem unable to grasp that the way it works for them isn't the way it works for everybody. The way it registers their hand merely leaning on the wheel might result in a suspension for somebody else who leans on the wheel without physically working to apply more pressure or actively pull on the wheel compared to somebody else who might merely lean a hand on it.
Not sensing means not knowing whether anybody is holding the wheel or not. Sensing meant knowing that somebody was holding the wheel, until Tesla put in things to try to deal with weights. So now sensing enough pressure or not sensing enough pressure can cause a warning, and adding pressure can get rid of a warning or disable autosteer completely, sometimes without a driver even realizing it. It's a mess.
On top of that, it forces drivers to look less at the road and look more at the screen to see if messages pop up. So you end up with drivers watching for a message, tugging the wheel and keeping their eyes off the road a lot more because of it. Getting drivers to watch the road by forcing them to look away from the road is absurd.
Also, checking if they are holding the wheel only when Autopilot/FSD is off makes no sense. If Autopilot disengages, that's when I want the car to warn me. If the car senses that nobody is holding the wheel with Autopilot off, the solution should be to turn it on, alert the driver, and make sure that the driver then shows signs of paying attention. It's completely backwards the way it is.
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