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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

#81
post #22

Musk wanted to regulate AI to combat existential threat; in reality, it's not super intelligent self-aware AI, but buggy/shitty AI that's trying to kill people.

Everyone's afraid that AI will become too smart and take over the world. They should be afraid that it's too dumb and already has.

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#82

This kind of video makes me wonder: what is the "autopilot" feature actually for? Do people generally like it? (I don't own a Tesla and I've never driven one.) If you're supposed to keep your hands on the wheel, and given videos like this that show you really need to keep your hands on the wheel and pay attention, is automatic steering really that big of a deal? Cruise control, now, that really is useful because it a…

So human drivers are terrible at driving for any long period of time, especially on relatively consistent "boring" highways. Guess what computers excel at? Driving consistently on consistent highways. The Tesla Autopilot is supposed to be the always aware and paying attention portion on these cases where a human driver would be very likely to start texting or dozing off. Now, it's not fully autonomous and may well de…

  Guess what computers excel at? Driving consistently
  on consistent highways.
Watching the video, would you say the computer was excelling, or that the road was radically unusual? I wouldn't.

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#83
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?

When I was a kid there was a cartoon where a truck painting a white line in the middle of the road, drove off a cliff for some reason (and therefore, so did the line).

The punchline was that all the other cars also fell off the cliff because they were following the line instead of looking at the road.

It's crazy to think, that's where we are now with so-called self-driving cars.

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#84

People aren't going to tolerate this kind of stuff. These aren't cosmetic or aesthetic flaws. This is an area that deserves transparency. I'm out on the road too, and I don't get to make "consumer choices" for other people I share the road with. People are putting their market power into companies that lack the basic integrity to build these technologies with safety and transparency as the first priority, who evident…

Nobody's forcing autopilot on anyone. I think instead, tesla will / should opt to disable autopilot earlier in non-ideal conditions like this - that way they won't be held liable either. ATM it really feels like they're being put on trial here.

It's not any different than the situation with bad human drivers, but anyone on the same road is exposed to these systems.

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#85
post #58

Go to Washington DC, head West on Congressional, cross the Roosevelt bridge and take the exit for the GW. If there isn't a car smashed into the middle of the north/south Y junction, you'll get the chance to count the skid marks at that Y junction from humans making this exact same error. Tl dr; humans make the same mistake, at a higher frequency, which is why the accordian barrier exists.

humans at least are aware that they made a mistake and can avoid collision. Tesla makes no mistake, tesla has no idea whats going on so you cannot call it a mistake. Its not a bug, its a feature.

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#86

This kind of video makes me wonder: what is the "autopilot" feature actually for? Do people generally like it? (I don't own a Tesla and I've never driven one.) If you're supposed to keep your hands on the wheel, and given videos like this that show you really need to keep your hands on the wheel and pay attention, is automatic steering really that big of a deal? Cruise control, now, that really is useful because it a…

Personally I hate cruise control. I prefer to be actively engaged when driving. Either I am driving 100% or I am not at all, there is absolutely no middle ground in my opinion

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#87

This kind of video makes me wonder: what is the "autopilot" feature actually for? Do people generally like it? (I don't own a Tesla and I've never driven one.) If you're supposed to keep your hands on the wheel, and given videos like this that show you really need to keep your hands on the wheel and pay attention, is automatic steering really that big of a deal? Cruise control, now, that really is useful because it a…

To directly answer your question: people buy autopilot so they can check their phone while commuting down the freeway to work. I was talking to a group of people about the difficulties of commuting in the Santa Clara Valley, and one guy shrugged and said, "just get a Tesla, move to the left lane, and manage email until you get to work".

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So human drivers are terrible at driving for any long period of time, especially on relatively consistent "boring" highways. Guess what computers excel at? Driving consistently on consistent highways. The Tesla Autopilot is supposed to be the always aware and paying attention portion on these cases where a human driver would be very likely to start texting or dozing off. Now, it's not fully autonomous and may well de…

The problem is autopilot actively engages you even less than highway driving. I argue this exacerbates some of the problems that cause humans to checkout. I don't know what the answer is but it feels like GM's super cruise does a more adequate job of acknowledging the realistic limits of the technology and explicitly white lists roads where the technology is available for use. I personally think that without some sor…

Beacons is a great idea -- have some standardized beacon system, and a public map of autopilot-approved roads.

Following the beacons safely would be a vastly easier problem than trying to completely replace a human driver in all situations, but it would still give you about 90% of the benefits.

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#89
The ability to discern when the car needs to stop for a stationary object right in front of it needs to be an ironclad requirement for self-driving.

It seems that sophisticated LIDAR is currently the best way to achieve this, but LIDAR is expensive. So companies like Uber and Tesla skimp on the LIDAR, and build self-driving cars that can more or less follow lanes but plow right into obstacles? Whoa.

The feasibility of widespread "self-driving" tech is going to advance only as the cost of LIDAR falls.

Re: Another Tesla on autopilot steers towards a barrier

#90

This kind of video makes me wonder: what is the "autopilot" feature actually for? Do people generally like it? (I don't own a Tesla and I've never driven one.) If you're supposed to keep your hands on the wheel, and given videos like this that show you really need to keep your hands on the wheel and pay attention, is automatic steering really that big of a deal? Cruise control, now, that really is useful because it a…

I've rented a model S for a weekend and drove about 1 000 kilometers in it.

Naturally, I tried the auto pilot feature on a highway but I wasn't to impressed. There is a major "bump" (negative G-forces), and the car tried to swirl into the other lane (this was within the first 40 minutes of my drive), and that made me distrust the auto steering feature.

As I think you're onto, I DO feel that auto pilot is the future, but we're not there yet - let's improve the existing life saving features (and not disconnect them, looking at you, Uber).

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