As a current Tesla owner and frequent autopilot user I can attest to this being a scenario where autopilot has not worked for me - traveling at high speed and approaching a stopped vehicle from a distance. I now always take it off autopilot when this occurs because it will not brake in time.
Tesla ‘on Autopilot’ slams into parked fire truck on freeway
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Re: Tesla ‘on Autopilot’ slams into parked fire truck on freeway
#82How obvious is the data recording on a Tesla? There's always a chance an inattentive driver will blame the smart car.
It's pretty granular, almost like a flight recorder. They've defended themselves against similar claims before by publishing details from the car's logs.
Yeah, though some of their defenses have been a little ... on the nose.
"Autopilot was not active at the time of collision, according to logs"... because it was deactivated by hard manual braking a moment before, because Autopilot was about to cause a hard collision...
Re: Tesla ‘on Autopilot’ slams into parked fire truck on freeway
#83> The California Highway Patrol and Culver City Fire Department confirmed the southbound Tesla had struck the fire truck, but could not immediately confirm whether the vehicle had been on Autopilot. It sounds like it's not 100% confirmed that Autopilot was at fault. The first sentence of the article also reads " reportedly on 'Autopilot'"
The more I think about it, the more I think that there should be an outward signal, such as a special light, that a car is in self-driving mode. We already require signals when changing lanes, reversing, and for electric cars to be audible at low speeds (starting in 2019). Those nearby shouldn’t have to guess if a car is under computer control.
I have been thinking about this more and more on my commute every day. Commuting up and down US101, I see so many Tesla's driving on the left lane, setting their autopilot to 65mph, just blocking traffic. There needs to be a visible indicator on the outside.
By the way, one can speculate there are interesting ways to trigger beeps inside these Teslas coasting on the left lane.
Re: Tesla ‘on Autopilot’ slams into parked fire truck on freeway
#84This is the drivers's fault. But how the heck did both the driver and the autopilot not see a bright red truck in broad daylight?
Re: Tesla ‘on Autopilot’ slams into parked fire truck on freeway
#85I wonder if it is imprudent to create too many vehicles that have partial self-driving capability before we have ones that can do 100% of it. Instead of to the point where you can take your attention away from the road, but not to the point where it can reliably avoid accidents on your behalf. Too many people aren't wise enough to use the partial autonomous technology without abusing it.
Do you really think there will ever be a 100% driverless car? I find it highly unlikely. And the paradox is, the better self-driving cars get, the more trouble driver is in when they are forced to take over. Drivers will be lacking basic driving skill, and essentially will get stuck on snowy/gravel/flooded roads.
Re: Tesla ‘on Autopilot’ slams into parked fire truck on freeway
#86As a current Tesla owner and frequent autopilot user I can attest to this being a scenario where autopilot has not worked for me - traveling at high speed and approaching a stopped vehicle from a distance. I now always take it off autopilot when this occurs because it will not brake in time.
I'm actually surprised by this. Isn't this something which the numerous brake-assist systems are supposed to handle easily? The radar should see far enough and Doppler should tell the relative speed.
Re: Tesla ‘on Autopilot’ slams into parked fire truck on freeway
#87I was thinking, is it possible to attach a weird control gizmo to your car and call it autopilot, and blame the device when it crashed?
It is not allowed in Japan (where I live) because of the draconian vehicle inspection program, but I guess in some US states it is more liberal.
Re: Tesla ‘on Autopilot’ slams into parked fire truck on freeway
#88As a current Tesla owner and frequent autopilot user I can attest to this being a scenario where autopilot has not worked for me - traveling at high speed and approaching a stopped vehicle from a distance. I now always take it off autopilot when this occurs because it will not brake in time.
From a technical perspective—why would Tesla not have taken more care to address this scenario? It seems like low hanging fruit in comparison to other challenges that autopilot has to be able to handle.
Re: Tesla ‘on Autopilot’ slams into parked fire truck on freeway
#89"The California Highway Patrol and Culver City Fire Department confirmed the southbound Tesla had struck the fire truck, but could not immediately confirm whether the vehicle had been on Autopilot."
So was it on autopilot or not.
Re: Tesla ‘on Autopilot’ slams into parked fire truck on freeway
#90You know I take issue with Tesla on these incidents. They're trying to have it both ways. They market it as 'autopilot' to appeal to the dream of complete self-driving but if an accident actually happens it can never be the fault of autopilot. After all it's required for the driver to be paying attention so if they didn't override autopilot it's obvious they weren't paying attention. Really I'd like to see the govern…
To be honest, I've only really heard this misunderstanding from non-owners. The really scary ones are the ones that own it, know about the limitations, and intentionally bypass the safeguards.
Like this guy ... with an orange: