Drive Assist lane centering and curves issues

[newlucidguy]

New '25 AT as of December, on 2.6.2. Overall, pretty happy with what's now called Drive Assist (highway assist on DDP). Reading past posts, I feel lucky to have gotten the car at a time when many improvements have been made to DDP. That said, the lane centering adjustments are a bit rough (not fine tuned) in my few uses, which got me wondering whether it's possible for Lucid to improve the smoothness of the lane centering. Just curious, what would it take for Lucid to improve the smoothness of the car's ability to maintain the car centered in the lane (excluding all other scenarios such as assisted lane change, etc) - where is the bottleneck in the car's systems? Can this be done solely by software? Does the CPU handling the feature have enough horsepower to do it at a faster rate? Do the sensors provide sufficient information for this to be done more smoothly? (frame rates for video, precision, etc). Can the steering be controlled in any smaller increments or is it already at the limit and requires the 'rough' approach just because the steering wheel can't be controlled more smoothly or in finer increments by the car? Is it a data issue - is more data gathering on Drive Assist actual performance needed and fed back into algorithms on control? I assume the bus rates and data rates are sufficient for any improvement. So, what is the bottleneck in the process and can it be 'improved' in the future (with the assumption that h/w changes on existing cars is out, so if it's h/w, then it can't get better). Reference speed of 65-70ish mph.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

When I had that problem, I took it in for service, and they recalibrated the DDP system. It made a huge difference. Since you'll have it on the rack, I suggest that you also have your headlights checked.

 

[newlucidguy]

When I had that problem, I took it in for service, and they recalibrated the DDP system. It made a huge difference. Since you'll have it on the rack, I suggest that you also have your headlights checked.

Thanks, super helpful. Any reason to suspect headlight issues or just because they might need calibration as well?

 

[Tâm]

New '25 AT as of December, on 2.6.2. Overall, pretty happy with what's now called Drive Assist (highway assist on DDP). Reading past posts, I feel lucky to have gotten the car at a time when many improvements have been made to DDP. That said, the lane centering adjustments are a bit rough (not fine tuned) in my few uses, which got me wondering whether it's possible for Lucid to improve the smoothness of the lane centering. Just curious, what would it take for Lucid to improve the smoothness of the car's ability to maintain the car centered in the lane (excluding all other scenarios such as assisted lane change, etc) - where is the bottleneck in the car's systems? Can this be done solely by software? Does the CPU handling the feature have enough horsepower to do it at a faster rate? Do the sensors provide sufficient information for this to be done more smoothly? (frame rates for video, precision, etc). Can the steering be controlled in any smaller increments or is it already at the limit and requires the 'rough' approach just because the steering wheel can't be controlled more smoothly or in finer increments by the car? Is it a data issue - is more data gathering on Drive Assist actual performance needed and fed back into algorithms on control? I assume the bus rates and data rates are sufficient for any improvement. So, what is the bottleneck in the process and can it be 'improved' in the future (with the assumption that h/w changes on existing cars is out, so if it's h/w, then it can't get better). Reference speed of 65-70ish mph.

I would make a wild guess that it's software and not the hardware.

Tesla AP1 was not very powerful but its lane centering and lane change were very good and smooth. When Tesla switched to the then much more powerful AP2, it was initially not usable. It took years for AP2 to catch up with AP1's skills.

You can go to comma.ai to buy a cheap ADAS for $999 and it can do hands-free and lane change quite well for a couple of years. GM Super Cruise has been hands-free very well since 2017 (lane change in 2022) and its cheap ADAS hardware is no where comparable to the expensive and powerful Lucid hardware.

Again, my wild guess to fix the problem is to beef up the software department. Pour large amount of money into it or pay NVIDIA to incorporate the software into Lucid.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

Thanks, super helpful. Any reason to suspect headlight issues or just because they might need calibration as well?

In my case, I suspect that both the DDP calibration and the headlight calibration had somehow fallen through the cracks in the build process. My headlights were way too low, and long after I had them fixed and DDP was getting better, I found out that my DDP was way off too. Might just have been a coincidence, but checking those headlamps only takes a few minutes.

 

[newlucidguy]

In my case, I suspect that both the DDP calibration and the headlight calibration had somehow fallen through the cracks in the build process. My headlights were way too low, and long after I had them fixed and DDP was getting better, I found out that my DDP was way off too. Might just have been a coincidence, but checking those headlamps only takes a few minutes.

thanks. they are going to check the DDP calibration. I didn't notice any headlight issues but will see if I can add that to the service ticket.

 

[newlucidguy]

When I had that problem, I took it in for service, and they recalibrated the DDP system. It made a huge difference. Since you'll have it on the rack, I suggest that you also have your headlights checked.

thanks again for the suggestion. got the DDP re-calibrated and now it's much better!! so glad!

 

[Buffalo Bob]

thanks again for the suggestion. got the DDP re-calibrated and now it's much better!! so glad!

I'm so glad to hear it helped! That said... While I have been quite impressed with the recent improvements, I must admit to a shocking surprise that I encountered last weekend. I was traveling around 70 MPH in the right lane of a modern local freeway, with my eyes on the road and my hand applying gentle side pressure in one direction or another. The car suddenly jerked to one side with such force that I was darn glad I was paying attention, and especially that my hand was already on the wheel. Otherwise, I would have very suddenly left my lane. (I'm not sure that I didn't do so to at least some degree.) I don't know if there was a break in the lane markings that I didn't notice, or if the car thought another vehicle was heading toward it, but it was clearly more like an extreme evasive maneuver than simple lane keeping. It has me thinking twice about the upcoming release of eyes on - hands free driving.

So, not to burst your bubble, but enjoy the improvement while continuing to treat the it with a hefty dose of skepticism.

 

[DeaneG]

...The car suddenly jerked to one side with such force that I was darn glad I was paying attention, and especially that my hand was already on the wheel...

In my experience this can happen once in a great while in either the far left or far right lane on DDP. It does make your heart beat faster for a minute.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

In my experience this can happen once in a great while in either the far left or far right lane on DDP. It does make your heart beat faster for a minute.

Yeah... As long as it KEEPS beating!

 

[newlucidguy]

I'm so glad to hear it helped! That said... While I have been quite impressed with the recent improvements, I must admit to a shocking surprise that I encountered last weekend. I was traveling around 70 MPH in the right lane of a modern local freeway, with my eyes on the road and my hand applying gentle side pressure in one direction or another. The car suddenly jerked to one side with such force that I was darn glad I was paying attention, and especially that my hand was already on the wheel. Otherwise, I would have very suddenly left my lane. (I'm not sure that I didn't do so to at least some degree.) I don't know if there was a break in the lane markings that I didn't notice, or if the car thought another vehicle was heading toward it, but it was clearly more like an extreme evasive maneuver than simple lane keeping. It has me thinking twice about the upcoming release of eyes on - hands free driving.

So, not to burst your bubble, but enjoy the improvement while continuing to treat the it with a hefty dose of skepticism.

Right there with you. For me, for now, it's all hands on deck with drive assist until I get much more experience with it (without changes to it). In my brief test after re-calibration, it was hugging the inside of the lane on a curve .. something I don't think it did before. Anyway I'll continue to try it but as you say also prepared to take control instantly. One thing was interesting in my first re-test was I initiated an auto lane change - it started and did half of it, then could not complete and showed a huge message in red for me to take control. That hadn't happened to me before. Not sure why it couldn't. Worked fine today.