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Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

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Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#41
post #27

One of the great things about self driving cars is that we are going to start "debugging Roads". From my point of view all accidents until this time could be attributed to the civil engineer that build the road as much as the driver of the car. You make a pedestrian pass between roads made only for aesthetic purposes so you put a sign forbidding the pass and call it done. But people of course use it and get killed. Y…

Suprising observation about the debugging of roads. Who knows we might even learn that certain States / Countries do better in this respect and the desing aswell as the signaling might benevit from this.

Thank you.

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#42
post #13

Autopilot tech in general should be open and shared among ccompanies and universities. The more brains we can put on this the better imho. If these things happen too often, Im afraid regulators will start making laws that prevent the use of this tech, which I believe has the potential to really make life better for all... one day.

Serious question: how will it make life better for all? I haven't given that question a lot of thought, and I haven't heard legit answers from others yet.

If autonomous systems reach the point where they are measurably safer than human drivers, there's an obvious benefit to using them.

Again it's an if, but lots of people drive long distances and don't enjoy it. An autonomous vehicle would relieve them of the driving task. It would also add a transport option for people that are unable to drive long distances.

It's likely to reduce the cost of taxi like services, as drivers are currently a significant portion of those costs (autonomous driving turns pricing into almost a pure calculation about return on investment).

I guess you might dismiss those as not being "legit" enough since they are all contingent on the systems working well.

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#43
post #26
post #13

Autopilot tech in general should be open and shared among ccompanies and universities. The more brains we can put on this the better imho. If these things happen too often, Im afraid regulators will start making laws that prevent the use of this tech, which I believe has the potential to really make life better for all... one day.

I have always wondered why each company is developing their own software and algorithms... How will NTSB certify the software? Or will they? I mean, they certify car safety features now through crash tests, roll over tests, etc... Why is Tesla, or anyone manufacturer, allowed to modify vehicle safety features through OTA updates without recertification? I realize it adds more regulation...and I'm sure there can be a…

Patents and the ability to earn money by licensing out technology. That, or hoping they are the best and get more customers through it - I think that's currently the case for Tesla, selling the only commercially available semi-autonomously driving car ATM.

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#44
post #13

Autopilot tech in general should be open and shared among ccompanies and universities. The more brains we can put on this the better imho. If these things happen too often, Im afraid regulators will start making laws that prevent the use of this tech, which I believe has the potential to really make life better for all... one day.

I think (at least in the US), the relationship the automakers have with regulators is such that if the automakers think they can make money by selling a feature, they will be able to get the regulators to come up with a way to allow it. Not necessarily one as simple as OTA updates whenever the manufacturer feels like it. As far as regulations preventing use of the tech, if level 2/3 systems end up causing more crashe…

I would guess people would just stop using it

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#45
post #10

What does this say about the quality of the automatic emergency braking, if it can't detect a substantial metal object directly in front of the car?

Depends on how close it is and what it is. Have to weigh the energy of the impact against the pitch introduced by braking. You need the bumper to take the hit, so that it and the crumple zones can do their job. However, for a wall or highway barrier, it's probably almost always worthwhile to shed as much energy as possible. You're going to pitch yourself under the barrier where the bumper won't take the hit, like you…

> Have to weigh the energy of the impact against the pitch introduced by braking. You need the bumper to take the hit, so that it and the crumple zones can do their job.

Eh? The vast majority of real frontal impacts will be under heavy braking. If a few degrees of dive under brakes is enough to compromise the crumple zones' effectiveness then your car is bad (and I don't believe any Teslas are bad in this way.)

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#46
post #24
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not usable anywhere. What if I draw a fake line on the road? will it follow it? what if you have wet paint and another vehicle smudges it diagonally to the lane?

I have a pretty simple lane keeping aid in my car that keeps me within the lines. Yesterday it suddenly steered towards a wall. I think it may have been confused by either glare (low sun right in front of me) or a shadow line on the road.

I have it too, it makes some jolts from time to time. It will also start blaring about ten seconds after me not providing any steering input, though. It's lane ASSIST, not automatic driving.

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#47
I wonder what "AI updates" are going to mean from an insurance point of view. Don't know about the US, but some countries in Europe insure the driver and not the car (eg. Ireland). How far fetched is for insurers to argue that an autonomous car software update constitutes a change of driver and demand that the updates must first be validated from them before installing?

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#48
post #40

You can pry the steering wheel out of my cold dead hands. Might be true that on paper these things cause less accidents and less deaths, but I want to be in control of my life. If I die in a car I don't want it to be because of a software bug.

I hate to break it to you but it could still happen to you because both you and those Teslas are part of the same traffic stream. So you could easily get killed because of a software bug in someone else's vehicle.

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#49
post #14
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not usable anywhere. What if I draw a fake line on the road? will it follow it? what if you have wet paint and another vehicle smudges it diagonally to the lane?

I wonder how it works when there is some road work, and there are multiple overlapping lines at once.

IMO it should not - it should sound an alarm, have the driver take over, and shut down.

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#50
post #8

If Tesla autopilot relies on good quality road markings, then it's not yet usable in 80% of the world.

It's not usable anywhere. What if I draw a fake line on the road? will it follow it? what if you have wet paint and another vehicle smudges it diagonally to the lane?

This isn't new, but what if it snows? I live in Calgary and snow covers our roads for about 30-40% of the year.
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