Tesla Vision fails as owners complain of Model 3 cameras fogging up in cold weather::A number of Tesla owners have taken to Reddit after their front cameras fogged up and stopped working in cold weather, leaving several features, including the US$10,000 FSD Beta, inoperable. Tesla has declined to assist to these customers, despite many of their vehicles being covered under warranty.

  • ratman150@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    What irks me about this is I own an ev (not a Tesla obviously fiat 500e) and I slog/bash that thing through mud/snow/rain/several inches of water on the regular and even do what id consider rally driving with it at times and it’s fine. You know why? Because this was always a Tesla engineering failure and not an ev failure. But it sucks because people will think ev= unable to get wet which just is not true.

    • Dojan@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Neighbour in my old area got one of those “Gone to Plaid” (???) models, supposedly quite expensive. It had more panel gaps than my roomie’s Golf, which was only a fraction of the price.

      In fact the Golf has held up really well! He bought it second-hand for 160k, and is now looking to switch to a Miata. The dealership offered him 150k for it. He’s been driving it for over a year.

      Currency here is Swedish Crowns.

      • Grass@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        The quality control is seemingly nonexistent though. The sucker that had theirs kick the bucket after getting rained on probably doesn’t care how well the core features work.

          • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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            1 year ago

            and submerge the battery.

            So why wouldn’t the battery be sealed? Why is this a mode of failure that you believe is somehow acceptable? Short of the car going the route of a particular 500k P1… Why wouldn’t we expect the batteries to be sealed if they’re that sensitive to water ingress?

            You realize that outside has a lot of water? And it’s pretty normal for some of that to get on the underside of your vehicle… Why wouldn’t tesla as a car design/manufacturer account for that and take reasonable precaution to stop water ingress on the battery? You even hear of an ICE car doing this short of driving into a lake?

            • watashionamae@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              You even hear of an ICE car doing this short of driving into a lake?

              All the time. Cars are not amphibious vehicles. The ones made for that generally have a snorkel. We’re advised to not drive in high water for reasons including causing damage to your vehicle and your vehicle floating away.

              • Spiralvortexisalie@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                For reference, the car in question’s model was noted by a Tesla rep as “We def don’t recommended this, but Model S floats well enough to turn it into a boat for short periods of time. Thrust via wheel rotation.“ source

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’ve driven my non-EV through deep puddles more than once, just by accident. They kept working, didn’t catch fire, etc. Maybe Tesla should plan for that not especially uncommon scenario for their cars?

      • WallEx@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        I heard of so many gaps in the bodywork, fogging up of the headlights or even the interior, stiff like that. It seems like there is a huge range of quality, even with the same model.

        • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Some of that (not all) is anti EV propaganda, both funded by competitors or exaggerations and sometimes outright fabrication by people who (justifiably) dislike Musk.

  • NataliePortland@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Every other car uses LIDAR and Elon thinks he’s such a forward thinker for shunning it. So dumb

    • StenSaksTapir@feddit.dk
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      1 year ago

      Radar. Only a small handful of cars have LIDAR. But your point still stands. Outside of Elon being a humongous douche and completely unpredictable, the lack of sensors is the major reason for not wanting a Tesla.

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      The driving assist features of my Honda CR-V also stop working whenever there’s snow or ice on the front of the car. Bad design for cold climates is not just a Tesla issue.

      • Nudding@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You shouldn’t be out of park while there’s snow or ice on your vehicle. Clean off your fucking vehicles.

    • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      His argument makes sense. Human vision is not too different from just a camera. I see the argument for lidar but it can also be a bit more expensive to accomplish the same task. I’m open to listening to your argument as to why lidar technology would be a better path for self driving cars.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It seems to me that we want to make self-driving cars safer that human drivers. And to make them safer, you want them to use every kind of sensor that is practical to avoid accidents. LIDAR alone isn’t the path. Neither is visual alone.

        Also, suggesting that a car with cameras is equivalent to a human with a human brain that has eyes attached to it is a little silly.

      • nephs@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The eye is the fucking whole argument for the stupid creationism. The most complex piece of machinery in the human body and shit.

        That man thinks he’s god, to create similar functionality.

        Has he fucking tried to keep his eyes open in fucking cold weather?

        Why not just use humans eyes outside of earth’s atmosphere?!

        He’s just so fucking stupid. Rich and stupid. The shit he spends his “hard earned” money would be so much better and efficient if spent controlled by mostly anyone else.

      • accideath@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Humans don’t just use eyes when driving. Sound, and touch also play big roles, for example when it comes hearing ambulances nearing or to feel road conditions. And we have a really good sense for depth and distance, that’s much harder to replicate with just cameras. And even Humans aren’t allowed to drive with headphones on (at least here in Germany), because it’s dangerous to limit the amount of sensors available to us.

        Besides that, even our sight is faaaar from perfect either and there are quite a lot of accidents caused by drivers just not seeing another driver or some other obstacle. Our vision is pretty good, yes, but the amount of guessing our brain has to do for us to actually see what we do isn’t exactly small.

        I don’t know about you, but I would prefer a self driving vehicle to be safer than a human. Because if it isn’t, why bother? And how could it be safer, if it uses less information than humans, who are shit drivers already?

        And yes, lidar is more expensive but so what? It’s cheap enough to add it to phones. Expensive phones, yes but in the grand scheme of things, they’re still quite a bit cheaper than a car and Teslas aren’t exactly cheap cars either. And Tesla used to include radar in their cars until they didn’t. And the cars didn’t get that much cheaper…

        And to give a positive example: Mercedes Benz are the first to launch a Level 3 autonomous vehicle. And guess what? It uses Lidar, audio sensors, road condition sensors, etc. and actually achieved L3 autonomy, while Tesla’s FSD is constantly tested to be one if the worst performing Level 2 systems in the industry, despite their claims of greatness…

        • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Lidar is not just more of expensive, it is extremely fragile in a vehicle which is bouncing around at highway speeds.

          • accideath@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Well, doesn’t seem to bother any other car manufacturer much. Probably because the benefits outweigh the complexity disadvantages

      • loutr@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        The obvious argument is that eyes are far from perfect and fail us all the time, especially when going fast. We are quite good at making up for it, but saying “We have eyes so my self driving cars will have eyes too” is pretty fucking dumb.

        • ItsMeSpez@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          We also recognized that we need to keep our windshields clear of fog in order for our eyes to work properly.

      • learningduck@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        Think of that Coyote and the roadrunner cartoon. If there’s a graffiti that looks like a tunnel the coyote may run into the tunnel based on vision alone, but a secondary sensor will help telling that there’s a wall.

        Irl, If the vision failed to recognize that there’s something on the road, at least a secondary sensor will protest that there’s something on the road.

        • HERRAX@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          You can also test driving in direct sunlight without sunglasses or the suncover. You get notifications and beeping noises whenever the sun hits them directly, making the lane assist (I refuse to call it autopilot) quite irrational in most weather… It’s actually worse for me than driving in cold weather.

      • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        That argument doesn’t make sense because human vision isn’t that great either. When it’s dark or raining or snowing or foggy our vision is pretty shit.

        I’m not saying LIDAR is better but rather point out that actually you want different types of sensors to accurately assess the traffic, because just one type of sensor isn’t likely to cut it. If you look at other manufacturers they’re not using only LIDAR or only camera. Some use LIDAR + camera, some user RADAR + camera, some user LIDAR, RADAR and camera. And I’m pretty sure that as manufacturers will aim for higher SAE levels they will add even more sensor into their cars. It’s only Tesla who thinks they can somehow do more with less.

        • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I think it’s undeniable the combination of camera and lidar will be the best solution. I just hope this can be coss effective. Maybe over time we can be able to adapt and improve the technology and make it more economical so that it is safer for our roads.

        • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          People here have no idea what they are talking about, or how absurdly difficult it is to actually deploy lidar to a consumer vehicle. There’s a reason why Tesla is shipping more advanced driver assist tech than anyone else, and it’s because they went against the venture capitalist Lidar obsession which is holding everyone back. There’s a reason why there are basically zero cars shipping with lidar today.

          You don’t need mm depth maps to do self driving. Not that you get that from lidar on rough roads anyway.

          • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            There are some test cars with lidar. It has the spinny thing on top and looks pretty interesting. I believe those cars are pretty successful. I don’t think they’re being mass produced though, because the costs might be a little prohibitive.

          • learningduck@programming.dev
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            1 year ago

            The most advanced that’s not even on autonomous level 3. It’s funny that Mercedes is the first to get level 3 approval in California and they don’t even boasting that as much.

            That aside, a secondary sensor that help verifying if the vision get it right would be nice. It could be just a radar or whatever. Imagine if the vision fail to recognize a boy in a Halloween costume as a person, at least the secondary sensor will the car to stop due to contradict perception.

            • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              I might be misremembering but I think Teslas are actually more capable, they’re just deliberately stating they’re SAE level 2 so they could skirt the law and play loose and dangerous with their public beta test.

              • learningduck@programming.dev
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                1 year ago

                I haven’t researched this enough, but Tesla says that they are level 3, but never bother to get the actual approval is like how I kept saying that I’m smart, but too lazy back in my school years.

                Put your money where your mouth is. Life are at stake here.

      • poopkins@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        While I disagree with you that you think his argument makes sense, I’m upvoting your comment because it encourages discourse and provides more insight and depth to this topic. I wish more people on Lemmy did the same.

  • SinningStromgald@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    No Teslas in the wet or the cold. Pretty soon they’ll only function, most of the time, in a climate controlled area.

    • ZeroCool@feddit.ch
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      1 year ago

      Lol, right? Every time there’s a new article about Tesla and their issues with weather it’s like reading a page out of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

      …And the Tesla said “Oooh dear this porridge is too hot! And this porridge is too cold!

      • cricket98@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        maybe its because you are blowing issues that affect a couple people and assume it affects everyone. like that time a tesla was flooded and the news went with “tesla’s can’t operate in wet conditions” and here you are repeating what you heard from tabloid articles.
        In this particular case, it’s likely a manufacturing defect that caused the sensors to not be sealed properly causing moisture to get in. You are not smarter than 100’s of engineers.

    • skyspydude1@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Well, designed and built in SoCal, an area not known for its incliment weather, and Tesla is too cheap to do any sort of environmental testing. No real surprise they have so many issues the moment it rains or the temp drops below 50F

    • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The car works just fine. You shouldn’t be using autopilot in bad weather anyway.

      • ZeroCool@feddit.ch
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        1 year ago

        Who said anything about bad weather? Jeez, you can always count on muskrats to say the dumbest shit when Daddy Elon needs to be defended.

        • cricket98@lemmy.world
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          I am not a fan of Elon Musk but it is quite funny watching lemmy users because experts in topics way out of their leagues because they saw a tabloid article that gives them another reason to hate musk. I promise you that you are not smarter than the 100’s of engineers working on tesla cars.

        • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Nah Musk is a total asshole, that’s obvious. I’m just pointing out ALL cars can still be driven when the cameras are foggy. Too many people in this thread seem to pretend that the entire car refuses to drive because it got a little chilly.

          There are a million legitimate reasons to criticize Elon, (like the fact he’s a raging transphobe), but this one is kinda meh.

        • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Nah, relying on FSD and whining when it goes out is elitist.

          Obviously cold counts as bad weather to the machine if it messes up your camera system, so just drive it like a normal human.

      • paintbucketholder@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Since you seem to know a lot about Tesla: when people pay those $12,000 for the “Full Self-Driving package,” does Tesla tell them they can’t use it when it gets cold outside?

  • tacosanonymous@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    So, the only way to have anything covered under warranty is to never have your Tesla leave the indoor track which is temp/humidity controlled.

    Oh how far we’ve advanced.

    • jaspersgroove@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      No point in doing warranty work when you don’t have a fix for the problem, this is what happens when you buy hard goods from a manufacturer that runs itself like a software company.

  • Joker@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    Can confirm it’s terrible all around. FSD is horrendous. It also has problems in bright sun and rain.

        • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago
          1. They are tech nerds and want an EV.

          It use to be this was excusable. But there are a lot of options now, no?

          • Dojan@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            There are so many options. Manufacturers that have been in the market basically since the inception of cars, and have decades upon decades of experience designing and building them all have EVs. You can easily get a higher quality EV for much less.

              • Dojan@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                There are alternatives. Fiat 500e is probably the cheapest, here in Sweden it goes for about 260k. Not as cheap as a Dacia Sandero (Petrol), which goes for ~180k.

                There’s also the Nissan Leaf and the Renault Zoe, which will bump the price up to around 380-390k.

                1USD is about 10.88SEK currently, so the 500e goes for about $24kUSD~, rounded up.

                Petrol vehicles are cheaper. The Sandero is a fantastic car, particularly given the price. It doesn’t feel cheap at all. Hopefully with petrol vehicles getting phased out and more battery technologies maturing, that will change.

                Personally, I don’t see myself buying an EV. I won’t drive very often, most likely not more than once or twice a month. I don’t want to spend much on a car, so I’d rather get a used one. Problem is one of the reasons I need a car would be for emergency stuff, like taking my dog to the nearest vet hospital, 166 kilometres away. A second-hand EV won’t have much range, and in an emergency you can’t afford to stop and charge for 20 minutes.

      • Joker@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        I bought mine in 2019 before I knew Elon is a lying turd. I bought FSD because I like tech stuff and I was doing a lot of highway driving at the time. My opinion of Elon and the car might be less negative if I didn’t feel like I got scammed out of $6000 for FSD. It’s been a good car otherwise, but I wouldn’t buy another one.

        • hansl@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Same here. Waiting for a good Porsche SUV EV to come around. Same price range as Tesla, none of the bullshit.

      • CallOfTheWild@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Because they’re pretty great in most ways. They are one of the most energy efficient EVs, they are the most fun to drive of all the EVs I’ve driven (best acceleration and handling), I love not needing keys anymore. I love being able to control my car from the app. Tesla has almost twice as many high speed charging stations as every other charging company combined. They are more affordable than most other EVs. The lane assist is better than any other car on the market. Sure Elon is a dick, but Tesla has some adults in the room making good design decisions. It’s certainly not perfect but it’s a solid choice if you’re looking for an affordable, fun, and efficient car.

      • runningromeo@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        From an Australian perspective, I wanted an ev and I wanted to be able to take it on road trips. The supercharger network is the most comprehensively built out infrastructure here and frankly the only way to reliably make long road trips.

        The minute they open it up to other manufacturers that advantage disappears; similarly if we had any genuine effort from any corner to build out competing infrastructure.

        It’s easy to shit on Tesla because, well, , but in some markets they still hold a distinct and compelling competitive advantage.

        Meanwhile my anecdotal n=1 stranger on the internet story is that I’ve not had any issues with my model 3 so far: for me, it’s been a great car. When I purchased it, the decision came down to the 3 or the polestar 2, and at the time polestar had zero service capability here: based on 12 months of driving I feel I made the right decision.

      • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        With all of their flaws, they remain one of the best EVs on the market. And at least for the very short future, they are some of the few cars that can use the only charging network that doesn’t suck. Though, that very notable advantage will be gone in about a year.

  • tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.uk
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    1 year ago

    Camera fogging has been an issue since at least 2019… Tesla forums usually have threads from new owners surprised by this each year…

    It was 100% predictable that ‘vision only’ would fail in these circumstances.

    • soggy_kitty@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Or just heat the lenses, air force and army have been doing it for fucking decades. You never hear about an F18 TGP or Abrams commander sight “fogging up” lol

      • Destraight@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Teslas are not tanks tho. They’re cars, there is a difference if you don’t know

        • lucidinferno@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The commenter is talking about adding heaters, not anti-aircraft weaponry. There’s plenty of examples of things developed by the military that are used in civilian products.

          • Destraight@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            He said nothing of the sort about heaters, only to “heat” the lenses

      • skyspydude1@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They aren’t normally sealed in most integrations, but will often have heater wires around them or embedded in the windshield that will heat up the windshield/sensor enclosure, just like the defog on a rear window or mirrors.

  • ZeroCool@feddit.ch
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    1 year ago

    Lol every time there’s a new article about Tesla’s weather problems it’s like reading a page out of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

    …And the Tesla said “Oooh dear this porridge is too hot! And this porridge is too cold!

  • 001@kbin.melroy.org
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    1 year ago

    I was very happy with my 2019 model 3. I upgraded to a new model y a month ago, and the vision stuff definitely feels like a downgrade. I already have a scratch because the vision based park assist is so bad.

    • nxdefiant@startrek.website
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      That interesting. I find the auto park so slow to use, it just bugs me that it can’t park in one swift motion. I have a model Y that went from radar to vision and FSD is definitely better now than before, but they also don’t have car-length based follow distance anymore.

      The latest update added “follow the speed/flow of traffic” and that works excellent. I drive 200 miles a day in heavy traffic a few times a week and it is far less stressful in the Tesla w/ FSD.