Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#141

Post by OliverJones » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 2:17 PM UTC

Svip wrote: post #69

nodesocket wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you not hear the warning tones trigger before the accident occurred?

Isn't that because the Tesla can see the brake light on the car two cars ahead? As soon as the red car swerves slightly to the right, and the brake light becomes visible, the Tesla brakes. Moreover, the speed of the cars before it are suddenly slowly down.

> Isn't that because the Tesla can see the brake light on the car two cars ahead?

Not the brake light: the speed differential between that car, the car one car ahead, and the car with the radar.

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#142

Post by mjolk » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 2:20 PM UTC

Rapzid wrote: post #16

ChuckMcM wrote: post #2

I thought this an interesting video when Elon retweeted it. Basically the car is responding faster than the people do and keeping things from escalating. That said, having been on 101 when the cars in front start dancing like that I have to say my biggest worry isn't stopping in time its having someone behind me not stop.

That's why I usually break fast initially and check the rearview; extend the braking distance to allow extra room for the person behind if they are too close.

> That's why I usually break fast initially...

Please don't do this in the snow or in wet conditions. Sharp actions are what will make other cars change direction or magnify the effects of drivers that you have caused to panic. Putting on your hazards and slowing at a deliberate pace is safer for everyone behind you.

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#143

Post by OliverJones » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 2:21 PM UTC

ge96 wrote: post #60

do the cars have some serious computer hardware or is it really good code/cloud assisted computation? Maybe ANN's active while driving?

> cars have some serious computer hardware

Yes, that's it. Signal processing for forward looking radar, forward and backward looking cameras, and side-looking sonar sensors. Definitely local.

Cloud wouldn't work. The Teslas have LTE data links, but their latency is grossly unpredictable.

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#144

Post by jdminhbg » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 2:21 PM UTC

forgetsusername wrote: post #123

zodiakzz wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. Can someone fill me in.. why does lately every Tesla-related post have a token "PR stunt" comment?

> why does lately every Tesla-related post have a token "PR stunt" comment? Why does every single bit of Tesla "news" make the front page? I see 50 videos a day on Reddit of people miraculously avoiding accidents, never once on HackerNews. This is kind of cool, but I'm going to remain skeptical that it "predicted" the accident. There were other cars that also stopped in time. Did we expect it to bulldoze into the bac…

> I mean, do people actually believe that Tesla has developed self-driving AI that is actually "predicting" accidents?

I don't understand what would be difficult to believe about this. It doesn't take super-sophisticated math to predict car X and car Y are too close and moving too fast to avoid an accident. It's mostly a matter of having the sensors to build an accurate map, and it seems like Tesla has that.

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#145

Post by unclebucknasty » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 2:22 PM UTC

Nadya wrote: post #138

unclebucknasty wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The glorification of tech/denigration of humans juxtaposition is getting old fast. This attitude may seem benign, but it's insidious, carries a hint of elitism, and spills over into labor, class, and other aspects of human life. Why can't we appreciate tech advances without devaluing people?

Every death in my family that I'm capable of remembering was auto-related and the driver was at fault. All of them were easily preventable if the driver was not distracted or wasn't straight up breaking the law. That is 6 family members I would still have if not for complete human incompetence. The romanticism of "human control" is not an idea I am willing to support. Humans are terrible at most things they do. We ge…

I don't advocate that we needlessly endanger lives; just that we don't devalue those same humans we claim to want to save.

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#146

Post by agumonkey » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 2:24 PM UTC

bengale wrote: post #130

pipio21 wrote: post #124

One of the main causes of accidents are vehicles left on the road and other vehicles impacting them or the people as they take for granted that traffic will be fluid and are distracted or whatever. You should never leave your children and family on a car on the left lane while you leave, never. I have a neighbor that is paraplegic because of that. His entire family went to the hospital after a vehicle crashed from be…

In fairness the guy is saying that in the video. Stop, wait to see what the cars do behind, etc. Presumably he gets out when traffic has stopped behind him.

Thanks you both. I didn't hear what the driver said, and I didn't really realize the potential danger of the left lane. Somehow I was only worried about people on the right side because that's where the flow of car could still move.

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#147

Post by brohoolio » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 2:26 PM UTC

verbify wrote: post #104

Etheryte wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a commonly known problem of SUVs, their center of gravity is a lot higher so they're a lot easier to flip over. That's why I'm puzzled by people who buy urban SUVs, that is, jeep-like cars that they never intend to use off-road.

Quite often they're a fashion statement more than anything else.

Transporting a family takes room. Rear facing car seats don't necessarily fit into smaller cars.

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#148

Post by AznHisoka » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 2:26 PM UTC

brodie78382 wrote: post #140

sytelus wrote: post #67

This is great video to study on many levels beyond self-driving car. Some observations: * The car behind didn't show turn signal so probably driver wasn't paying attention. * A small car escaping with not too much damage while SUV rolls over many times * From physics point of view, the car behind produced almost perfect torque that started horizontal spin on SUV * Collisions with barrier at high speed can produce lot…

> The car behind didn't show turn signal Watch the video again; the little red car turns on their blinker and does a very slow shift to the right before clipping that stopped SUV. You're right that he wasn't paying attention, but his reaction time is incredibly slow - it looks like that car had just enough time to slam on their brakes or swerve to the right, yet they did neither.

not sure what the speeds these cars were traveling at but assuming this is regular highway speed is slow reaction time really a good excuse?

aren't you supposed to have a wide enough space between you and the car in front of you? to compensate for any slowness in reaction.

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#149

Post by sjs382 » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 2:28 PM UTC

sumedh wrote: post #89

sytelus wrote: post #67

This is great video to study on many levels beyond self-driving car. Some observations: * The car behind didn't show turn signal so probably driver wasn't paying attention. * A small car escaping with not too much damage while SUV rolls over many times * From physics point of view, the car behind produced almost perfect torque that started horizontal spin on SUV * Collisions with barrier at high speed can produce lot…

> Many time we see cars upside down in accident and wonder how did that happened. This is how Living in India, I have seen a fair share of accidents where the car is upside down. I always used to wonder how that happens, now I know.

It's also "a thing" in New Orleans. Check this out: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewOrleans/search?q=flip&sort=new&r...

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#150

Post by icoder » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 2:28 PM UTC

bengale wrote: post #130

pipio21 wrote: post #124

One of the main causes of accidents are vehicles left on the road and other vehicles impacting them or the people as they take for granted that traffic will be fluid and are distracted or whatever. You should never leave your children and family on a car on the left lane while you leave, never. I have a neighbor that is paraplegic because of that. His entire family went to the hospital after a vehicle crashed from be…

In fairness the guy is saying that in the video. Stop, wait to see what the cars do behind, etc. Presumably he gets out when traffic has stopped behind him.

Exactly, he waits until the situation behind him is safe enough to get out. He also mentions a truck, so I think by the time he gets out, there's a reasonable 'impact' buffer between his family and any moving vehicles (far) behind.