Live data from Hacker News

All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware

tesla.com

311–320 of 1001 posts

Re: All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware

#311

Some of what they describe sounds like it's going to take some real adjustment before it stops being annoying and starts being useful, namely the assumption of what you want when you get in and out. > If you don’t say anything, the car will look at your calendar and take you there as the assumed destination or just home if nothing is on the calendar. Oh boy. If you get in your car, it will just assume it should start…

I don't understand which text you're quoting. The article doesn't even contain the word "calendar".

Re: All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware

#312

How interesting. So up-coming Tesla drivers temporarily won't get fancy features. For a time, new Tesla buyers again become early adopters. But unlike traditional early adopters, who take a trade-off (on price, or features, or polish) for being first, these adopters are promised the features when they are ready. The nay-saying around Tesla is immense, even in these early HN comments. Obviously there's some risk here,…

> But unlike traditional early adopters, who take a trade-off (on price, or features, or polish) for being first

Actually, in regards to Tesla, they always stated (and were very open about it) that early-adopters pay premium to support research/growth/etc. First with Roadster, now with S (not sure about X). It can be expected that the same extra features (same hardware) on model will cost less. So the trade-off here is just that, being "first".

Re: All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware

#313
post #91

I think what people are missing here is an understanding of how these systems are tested and deployed at scale. While I have no involvement with Tesla I do have first-hand knowledge of similar programs at tier 1 automotive suppliers. The suppliers provide (or are looking to provide) an electronics suite to car manufacturers. The car manufacturers want the system to be safe lest they be sued out of existence. One part…

All miles are not created equals though. Sure Tesla will gather a lot of data quickly but most of this data will be from people who use their car for their daily commute, everyday at roughly the same hour. This doesn't have the same value as data from different areas/road conditions/time of day

Re: All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware

#314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why aren't other manufacturers following this model? I've seen 12-year Mercedes with internet connection, so the infrastructure has been there for a while.

Noone wants to have the first headline of "Massive multideath accident involving kindergardeners caused by software glitch" attached to their brand. Particularily not German carmakers who both emphasize how pleaseant and exciting it is to manually drive their vehicles ("Fahrvergnügen", "Vorsprung durch Technik", "Freude am Fahren"), but also use passenger safety as a major selling point.

Also, privacy.

Re: All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware

#315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's great that they're taking the big risks needed to move the industry forward, and not letting the lawyers run the company. But some of the risks they're taking are just completely stupid and unnecessary, such as calling their assisted cruise control "Autopilot." That's like waving the proverbial cape at the proverbial bull.

Pilot here. Airplanes have autopilot. While on autopilot you are still expected to be monitoring the flight and take control at a moments notice. Autopilot does not allow the pilot to take a nap or go in the back and party with the flight attendants. Autopilot is the correct term. I'm tired of always having to cater to the lowest common denominator.

Even in this extremely professional environment that is an airplane cabin, where people are trained to keep watch over the autopilot, people still don't follow procedure:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24296544

Over half of pilots admit to sleeping while on autopilot. These are people who had to take months and years of training to fly.

Meanwhile,to be a driver you need to drive for 15 minutes and do some basic manouvers. In some places of the world, not even that. And we hope that those people will "keep an eye on the road" while the autopilot feature is running? It sounds great in theory, but it's not going to happen. We need a system that can operate completely without human supervision - but that ain't happening any time soon either.

Re: All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware

#316
post #297
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's staggering that Tesla don't use LIDAR at all. Sure LIDAR is more expensive but the data quality is very stable and good. Cameras won't work that well or at all in night or when the sun rays blend in morning / evening or in bad weather conditions like heavy rain or snow. All other self-driving cars I know of have at least a small LIDAR beside several other types of sensors.

Besides being almost as expensive as the car they mount on top and stick out like a sore thumb. This is the reason. It doesn't look cool. Amazed that people don't realize that.

there are systems with LIDARs mounted next to the headlights.

Re: All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware

#317
post #91

I think what people are missing here is an understanding of how these systems are tested and deployed at scale. While I have no involvement with Tesla I do have first-hand knowledge of similar programs at tier 1 automotive suppliers. The suppliers provide (or are looking to provide) an electronics suite to car manufacturers. The car manufacturers want the system to be safe lest they be sued out of existence. One part…

Why aren't other manufacturers following this model? I've seen 12-year Mercedes with internet connection, so the infrastructure has been there for a while.

Disclaimer : i work on one of these car manufacturers IT departement, in close link with the "connected car" team.

The reasons are multiple. 1) building and upgrading a car model take them at least 2 years... in the meantime, they have time to clock the kilometers anyway.

2) They have no idea how to build that type of data "massive" environment. They just don't know. Like all our "connected car" data came onto one single thread acceptor on one single machine. No load balancing, no scaling nothing, until August when the vacations congestion overflooded it. So now we have 4 threads in that single machine. I could ramble on and on on this type of mistakes they do. They just don't know. And this year, they asked the team to reduce their budget. Because it is how the car industry works. After two years to kickoff the project, you have to cut your cost by 5% to 10% every year.

Re: All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware

#318
post #113
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious, what is "take control at a moments notice" in seconds? From what I've read about aviation, situations where really fast, let's say It seems like an airliner flying at altitude has quite large safety margins compared to a car on a highway.

Tell that to a pilot who's had an autopilot failure where a servo went crazy all of a sudden. You better act quick, especially in low visibility situations, to turn it off, or pull the circuit breaker. It might happen a bit slower than in a car, but the consequences can be much more dramatic.

Even if the plane started falling down like a rock, you still have more time to react than a driver of a car where a tyre burst at 80mph and now the car is heading towards the incoming lane/rock face on the other side. You literally might have less than few seconds to impact and I imagine that if you weren't holding the steering wheel at the time, you won't be able to do anything.

Re: All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware

#319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why aren't other manufacturers following this model? I've seen 12-year Mercedes with internet connection, so the infrastructure has been there for a while.

Noone wants to have the first headline of "Massive multideath accident involving kindergardeners caused by software glitch" attached to their brand. Particularily not German carmakers who both emphasize how pleaseant and exciting it is to manually drive their vehicles ("Fahrvergnügen", "Vorsprung durch Technik", "Freude am Fahren"), but also use passenger safety as a major selling point.

Sure, but with the data connection in their cars, they could have attached sensors and started uploading.

However, this would mean adding sensors and 12 years ago, these would have cost much more along with the data requirements.

Re: All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware

#320
They have a pretty interesting description of their radar images: "...because of how strange the world looks in radar. Photons of that wavelength travel easily through fog, dust, rain and snow, but anything metallic looks like a mirror. The radar can see people, but they appear partially translucent. Something made of wood or painted plastic, though opaque to a person, is almost as transparent as glass to radar".

So my question is, where can I find such images? Or can I buy such a radar and tinker with it myself? What wavelength are they speaking about?

Post reply on HN