North Phoenix-area FSD testers, try this?

phxazcraig

Member
Apr 4, 2024
44
47
18
I've had an odd issue with FSD (12.5.4.1) that has now repeated itself - trying to run a red light at a particular spot. I'm pointing this out in case someone else can verify this. Here's what happens.

First, I'm going southbound on Norterra Parkway approaching Dixeleta. This is on the north side of Phoenix, a mile east of I-17. Twice now, including the very first drive I tried with 12.5.4.1, FSD has seemingly ignored the light turning red. As I approached, the light turned yellow, and by the time you should have been slowing down, nothing happened. Car continues to drive through the light, even as it turns red before you reach the intersection. Twice I've jammed on the brakes to make the stop, but the car wasn't doing any slowing at all.

Once stopped, I looked at the display, and it was showing all three stoplights and they were red. (This is a 2-lane road with a light overhead, and one on each side of the road. Really hard to miss.)

I did not leave things alone to see if the car actually drove through the red light, but it was very close with no sign of slowing.

I have a theory. This is some sort of mapping error where the car thinks the light is on a side road, or we are on a side road without a light. Thus, as the car approaches the light, it thinks it does not apply to me. I do suspect that if the car were let along it may well have panic-braked at the last second as it realized it was entering an intersection with a red light.

A problem in testing here is that this light is almost always green when driving north/south. There is a quarry and a restricted road to a landfill on each side, and the light changes if a truck comes out of the quarry or the landfill, which just doesn't happen that often. And when it does happen, you have a truck in the intersection to deal with, though the trucks have cleared the intersection by the time my car approached.

Bonus issue: Only a few hundred yards south of Dixeleta, Norterra Parkway splits from a 2-lane road, to a 6-lane road with median. Normal southbound traffic swerves to the right to keep on Norterra Parkway. ONE time, FSD didn't swerve to the right and was apparently going to go straight and take me into the oncoming lanes! (No cars were coming.) If there was a mapping issue, it could be that FSD thought I wasn't at the split yet, or I was on some sort of frontage road to the actual road.

In any case, this is the only serious issue I have had with 12.5.4.1. (I use it extensively around Phoenix. Like 80% of my driving.) It still has usual big issues: poor lane planning and problematic speed controls. I had the red light running issue on my first test drive, so it made me very suspicious of the build, but outside this one 1/4 mile stretch, it's been mostly careful, predictable and relaxing. One area of discomfort has been FSD turning left in front of oncoming traffic, but only because it doesn't speed up to give the oncoming traffic more margin. Basically it doesn't seem to be factoring in a degree of possible acceleration of the oncoming traffic, so has the appearance of lazily turning in front of someone.
 

PrescottAZRichard

Well-known member
Oct 28, 2022
488
310
63
I've had an odd issue with FSD (12.5.4.1) that has now repeated itself - trying to run a red light at a particular spot. I'm pointing this out in case someone else can verify this. Here's what happens.

First, I'm going southbound on Norterra Parkway approaching Dixeleta. This is on the north side of Phoenix, a mile east of I-17. Twice now, including the very first drive I tried with 12.5.4.1, FSD has seemingly ignored the light turning red. As I approached, the light turned yellow, and by the time you should have been slowing down, nothing happened. Car continues to drive through the light, even as it turns red before you reach the intersection. Twice I've jammed on the brakes to make the stop, but the car wasn't doing any slowing at all.

Once stopped, I looked at the display, and it was showing all three stoplights and they were red. (This is a 2-lane road with a light overhead, and one on each side of the road. Really hard to miss.)

I did not leave things alone to see if the car actually drove through the red light, but it was very close with no sign of slowing.

I have a theory. This is some sort of mapping error where the car thinks the light is on a side road, or we are on a side road without a light. Thus, as the car approaches the light, it thinks it does not apply to me. I do suspect that if the car were let along it may well have panic-braked at the last second as it realized it was entering an intersection with a red light.

A problem in testing here is that this light is almost always green when driving north/south. There is a quarry and a restricted road to a landfill on each side, and the light changes if a truck comes out of the quarry or the landfill, which just doesn't happen that often. And when it does happen, you have a truck in the intersection to deal with, though the trucks have cleared the intersection by the time my car approached.

Bonus issue: Only a few hundred yards south of Dixeleta, Norterra Parkway splits from a 2-lane road, to a 6-lane road with median. Normal southbound traffic swerves to the right to keep on Norterra Parkway. ONE time, FSD didn't swerve to the right and was apparently going to go straight and take me into the oncoming lanes! (No cars were coming.) If there was a mapping issue, it could be that FSD thought I wasn't at the split yet, or I was on some sort of frontage road to the actual road.

In any case, this is the only serious issue I have had with 12.5.4.1. (I use it extensively around Phoenix. Like 80% of my driving.) It still has usual big issues: poor lane planning and problematic speed controls. I had the red light running issue on my first test drive, so it made me very suspicious of the build, but outside this one 1/4 mile stretch, it's been mostly careful, predictable and relaxing. One area of discomfort has been FSD turning left in front of oncoming traffic, but only because it doesn't speed up to give the oncoming traffic more margin. Basically it doesn't seem to be factoring in a degree of possible acceleration of the oncoming traffic, so has the appearance of lazily turning in front of someone.
Oh maybe something like that.
There used to be an issue here in Prescott when coming into town from HWY69 that was similar but the opposite of that. If you take the Gurley St split there’s a stop light where Sheldon St splits off. However, if you take the Sheldon St. fork coming in from HWY69 there is not stop light. That light on the parallel street would stop my car on Sheldon St if it was red for Gurley St traffic. I think that’s been fixed and the car is confident going through there now.
Also I think a while back when we were going north on Tatum or some other road going under the 101 we had something similar to what you’re saying. Some confusion with all the signals as we were in the left turn lane to Get to I17 to head back up the hill. That’s one where most of the time -no problem, but hit the intersection at just the right time with the right time / angle / light cycle and you gotta be careful. That’s been a while for us too so maybe that’s fixed.