Highway Assist Scare on my R1S Today

[BeanEW]

Today, I drove from the Bay Area to near Phoenix. When I was driving on CA-210 north of L.A., I was in the carpool lane, Conserve Mode, height on Low, going about 82 on Highway Assist, the concrete wall was very near the painted yellow line on the left. The carpool lane was narrow to start with and whenever there was an overpass, the lane got narrower on that spot. I was going fine at first but until one instance when going under an overpass and there was another car on my right, and I believe the road had a curve. HWA was like confused and jerking left and right violently, I meant very violently for about a second, stopped for about a second, then jerking again for another second and half. I tried to gain control back on the steering wheel... normally when I was in HWA mode, it would turn itself off when I hold the steering wheel with a little force (like changing lanes) but HWA wouldn't turn itself off. I thought I was going to crash into the sidewall or the car on the right; but luckily, HWA turned itself off after the second jerk. I played that cool and didn't want to scare my wife (next to me) but I was sweating inside of me.

From now and on, I do need to be very careful when I use HWA and will not use it in certain situations. I'm just wondering if this had happened to any of you?

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[Si.LE.R1S]

Today, I drove from the Bay Area to near Phoenix. When I was driving on CA-210 north of L.A., I was in the carpool lane, Conserve Mode, height on Low, going about 82 on Highway Assist, the concrete wall was very near the painted yellow line on the left. The carpool lane was narrow to start with and whenever there was an overpass, the lane got narrower on that spot. I was going fine at first but until one instance when going under an overpass and there was another car on my right, and I believe the road had a curve. HWA was like confused and jerking left and right violently, I meant very violently for about a second, stopped for about a second, then jerking again for another second and half. I tried to gain control back on the steering wheel... normally when I was in HWA mode, it would turn itself off when I hold the steering wheel with a little force (like changing lanes) but HWA wouldn't turn itself off. I thought I was going to crash into the sidewall or the car on the right; but luckily, HWA turned itself off after the second jerk. I played that cool and didn't want to scare my wife (next to me) but I was sweating inside of me.

From now and on, I do need to be very careful when I use HWA and will not use it in certain situations. I'm just wondering if this had happened to any of you?

Just a few days ago HWA tapped the brake at 70 mph for absolutely no reason. I was in the center lane with no one else around! Scared the hell out of me.

For your situation, could it have been that HWA disengaged, but lane keeping (Driver+) was still on in the background and thrown off by the narrow lanes?

I have had enough scares with HWA and the lane keeping in Driver+ that I only use these in the center lane with little or no other cars around (road trips, mostly). I actually turn off lane keeping altogether outside of HWA.

In my situation, though, it’s because many Vegas freeways use really wimpy lane markers (four little dots instead of a long paint stripe, and only the first dot is brightly reflective). During the day, Rivian (and others) can’t see the stripes very well, particularly under overpasses.

I also find that on the concrete stretches between Vegas and SoCal it also tends to fail, presumably because there’s not enough contrast between the white stripes and light concrete color. So I definitely avoid on those stretches as well.

Overall I don’t trust most of these assist technologies. Rivian in particular needs a lot more work before I’d trust it with any other traffic around. Subaru Eyesight was much better.

Bottom line to OP: Sadly, I think your experience is more common than Rivian cares to admit.

 

[Rknb2000]

I have had the HWA tap the brakes now 4 times while driving between 45-65. Each time no one around me, but I was on a 2 lane road with an on coming vehicle. First time scared the crap out of me!

 

[Count Orlok]

The Count once experienced this when it encountered a shadow at highway speed. not good

 

[SactownD]

This is not a feature that is ready for use imo. OK in a straight line but any corners will confuse it. Cement pavement also a no go. Seems to have a hard time finding the lines. Many dangerous moments like you’re describing and I’ve only had the vehicle two weeks.

 

[BeanEW]

Just a few days ago HWA tapped the brake at 70 mph for absolutely no reason. I was in the center lane with no one else around! Scared the hell out of me.

For your situation, could it have been that HWA disengaged, but lane keeping (Driver+) was still on in the background and thrown off by the narrow lanes?

I have had enough scares with HWA and the lane keeping in Driver+ that I only use these in the center lane with little or no other cars around (road trips, mostly). I actually turn off lane keeping altogether outside of HWA.

In my situation, though, it’s because many Vegas freeways use really wimpy lane markers (four little dots instead of a long paint stripe, and only the first dot is brightly reflective). During the day, Rivian (and others) can’t see the stripes very well, particularly under overpasses.

I also find that on the concrete stretches between Vegas and SoCal it also tends to fail, presumably because there’s not enough contrast between the white stripes and light concrete color. So I definitely avoid on those stretches as well.

Overall I don’t trust most of these assist technologies. Rivian in particular needs a lot more work before I’d trust it with any other traffic around. Subaru Eyesight was much better.

Bottom line to OP: Sadly, I think your experience is more common than Rivian cares to admit.

I had my Lane Keeping assist turned off the first day I picked up my car, never liked this feature. After this incidence, I trust the HWA feature a lot less.

 

[BeanEW]

The Count once experienced this when it encountered a shadow at highway speed. not good

I found that out from this trip too; when the sun was setting, my car thought that those big 18wheelers were in my lane because of the shadows.

 

[SlaterGS]

I guess I will go against the grain and say that my experience with HWA has been great in 2k-3kish miles in that mode.

@SactownD Main highway I drive on is cement and is in roughish shape with no problems, but obviously YMMV

One phantom brake experience with an overpass and shadow but it was momentary and not much different than I've come to expect on my Leaf or Pacifica Hybrid. Rare, but it can happen.

Curves haven't been an issue.

It does like to hug the drivers side line more than I prefer but that can be updated. I would personally not use any HWA in the OP's situation with heavy traffic and a very close concrete wall.
My guess is @Si.LE.R1S is correct that it was your Lane Keep Assist that actually jerked you back and forth.

I wish they would open it up on more roads, but the ones it does work well for me.

Note: Lane Keep Assist is another story for me and needs a lot of work. That was turned off after about 3k miles of driving as I just couldn't get used to the delay for lane changes and the subsequent jerking of the wheel. Hope they can finetune that in the future.

 

[Craigins]

I experienced the lane keep assist at the first mile drive event.

The first thing I did when I picked up my truck was disabling the LKA.

The Driver+ features I typically only use on low traffic highways. I mainly turn it on to give rivian more data to improve the feature. The performance is pretty bad, specially in the right lane with on/off ramps. The software tries way to hard to seek the exact center of the lane and constantly ping pongs back and forth ever so slightly. It is another one of those poor software requirements design that states the vehicle must be in the center of the lane.

 

[Firewired]

My own use case for highway assist is not so much at high speeds, where I have a lot less confidence in the system, and margins are less, but instead, I love to use it when in stop-and-go traffic.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

This is why I don’t believe in systems that take control of steering. The software is written to theoretical ideals and standards, when the real world has much looser standards and various states of infrastructure upkeep (understatement). Unrealistic to assume all roads have clearly marked lanes in all lighting and weather conditions at all times.

 

[paariv]

I have constant problems with lane centering when there are cement barriers on one side or narrow lanes in general.

The system does not adjust for physical objects - it just tries (in its very imperfect way) to keep you in the “correct” lane position. But when a semi truck is next to you, or there’s a construction barrier at the very edge of the lane, it should prioritize avoiding those over “centering” in the lane.

there’s so much construction and narrowing on my most frequent freeway drive (101 between SF and Sonoma) that it’s just not safely usable for me.

 

[eRacer]

I have constant problems with lane centering when there are cement barriers on one side or narrow lanes in general.

The system does not adjust for physical objects - it just tries (in its very imperfect way) to keep you in the “correct” lane position. But when a semi truck is next to you, or there’s a construction barrier at the very edge of the lane, it should prioritize avoiding those over “centering” in the lane.

there’s so much construction and narrowing on my most frequent freeway drive (101 between SF and Sonoma) that it’s just not safely usable for me.

We have had this same experience while trying to use Driver+. Lesson learned not to use that feature when driving next to cement barriers. Had issues along 80E in the Fairfield area and Sacramento portions where barriers were installed during construction. The truck gets you a little 'too close' to those barriers for our comfort.

Especially scary when it's combined with a slight curve. The truck's PID loop for lane centering responds too slow and causes the truck to ride the line at times. It seems as if the centering control does not compensate for your speed.

 

[SteveInBend]

My own use case for highway assist is not so much at high speeds, where I have a lot less confidence in the system, and margins are less, but instead, I love to use it when in stop-and-go traffic.

Isn't ACC all you really need in stop-and-go traffic?

 

[Mathme]

I've found the system works pretty well mostly. It seems to struggle when there's a long semi next to me on the freeway, if the lanes get narrow, or there's some sharper corners in the road....

I've had a couple of scary times when I'd turned the wrong direction in the situations above, so now I just disengage it.

I've also found that if you're on a 2-lane freeway tooling along in the right lane and getting passed by others if there's a freeway merge, it likes to freak out and disengage (when there's no car merging)...even though it warns of the merge ahead of time

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