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Tesla’s Autopilot found partly to blame for 2018 crash on the 405

latimes.com

171–180 of 236 posts

Re: Tesla’s Autopilot found partly to blame for 2018 crash on the 405

#171

Fire truck driver here: People crash into parked fire trucks and ambulances and cop cars all the damn time . That's why we park the Big Red Truck at an angle behind the accident -- so that when the 2-ton car crashes into the 30-ton truck, the car will bounce off and the people behind the truck (us) won't be injured. I don't disagree that Tesla's software is partly to blame here, but the null experiment also has a lou…

The difference is if an AI fails to handle a certain situation then it will fail every single time. With humans there is a random element and a small fraction end up failing.

Re: Tesla’s Autopilot found partly to blame for 2018 crash on the 405

#172
post #159
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no such thing as dangerously slowly - the fault lies with people that aren’t leaving enough room to take evasive action given their speed.

You'll be fined in The Netherlands for going too slow. They're not waiting for dangerously slow, way slower than any other traffic is enough. Example (Dutch, use Google Translate): https://www.rijnmond.nl/nieuws/124541/Flinke-boete-voor-te-l... A truck got a fine of 1500 EUR. The example was dangerously slow (eventually 40km/h), not just slow.

So I will be fined if I follow the speed limit, which is way slower than any other traffic?

Re: Tesla’s Autopilot found partly to blame for 2018 crash on the 405

#173
post #159
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no such thing as dangerously slowly - the fault lies with people that aren’t leaving enough room to take evasive action given their speed.

You'll be fined in The Netherlands for going too slow. They're not waiting for dangerously slow, way slower than any other traffic is enough. Example (Dutch, use Google Translate): https://www.rijnmond.nl/nieuws/124541/Flinke-boete-voor-te-l... A truck got a fine of 1500 EUR. The example was dangerously slow (eventually 40km/h), not just slow.

The fines are probably to discourage this behaviour and improve traffic flow slightly. But I'd be surprised if the law uses the term "dangerously slow", or anything similar.

Re: Tesla’s Autopilot found partly to blame for 2018 crash on the 405

#174

Fire truck driver here: People crash into parked fire trucks and ambulances and cop cars all the damn time . That's why we park the Big Red Truck at an angle behind the accident -- so that when the 2-ton car crashes into the 30-ton truck, the car will bounce off and the people behind the truck (us) won't be injured. I don't disagree that Tesla's software is partly to blame here, but the null experiment also has a lou…

The difference is if an AI fails to handle a certain situation then it will fail every single time. With humans there is a random element and a small fraction end up failing.

But situations are never "the same". The input (camera images, sensor data) will always be (slightly) different and – in this example – might just lift the confidence of "this is a truck standing on the road" over the threshold.

Re: Tesla’s Autopilot found partly to blame for 2018 crash on the 405

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for others, but while this is true in aggregate, I'm not personally willing to stake my life on a system that can, on a 1-in-a-million event and with no warning, accelerate into a fatal collision. An otherwise 100% accident-free driving record matters not when I'm dead. The failure modes of these systems need to be much more gentle: when I'm confronted with an uncertainty while driving, I slow down and…

> while this is true in aggregate, I'm not personally willing to stake my life on a system Why not? Statistically, you're safer with an autonomous system. Unless you're sure you're a much better driver than average, your position is irrational.

Only because the autonomous system restricts itself to drive in safer than average conditions. Stopping for a stationary object is something humans do dozens of times per journey in city traffic.

Re: Tesla’s Autopilot found partly to blame for 2018 crash on the 405

#176

Fire truck driver here: People crash into parked fire trucks and ambulances and cop cars all the damn time . That's why we park the Big Red Truck at an angle behind the accident -- so that when the 2-ton car crashes into the 30-ton truck, the car will bounce off and the people behind the truck (us) won't be injured. I don't disagree that Tesla's software is partly to blame here, but the null experiment also has a lou…

The difference is if an AI fails to handle a certain situation then it will fail every single time. With humans there is a random element and a small fraction end up failing.

But to an AI, a certain situation has millions of data points, it's very rare for a certain situation to reoccur. Similar types and classes of situations? You betcha. But they'd be handled based on other data points as well.

Re: Tesla’s Autopilot found partly to blame for 2018 crash on the 405

#177

Fire truck driver here: People crash into parked fire trucks and ambulances and cop cars all the damn time . That's why we park the Big Red Truck at an angle behind the accident -- so that when the 2-ton car crashes into the 30-ton truck, the car will bounce off and the people behind the truck (us) won't be injured. I don't disagree that Tesla's software is partly to blame here, but the null experiment also has a lou…

The difference is if an AI fails to handle a certain situation then it will fail every single time. With humans there is a random element and a small fraction end up failing.

Then it's not an AI but just complicated if-statements; if it was more like a real AI then it would learn from the experience. The core premise of AI is that it's learning and improving all the time, not that it does the exact same thing every time.

Re: Tesla’s Autopilot found partly to blame for 2018 crash on the 405

#178
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll be fined in The Netherlands for going too slow. They're not waiting for dangerously slow, way slower than any other traffic is enough. Example (Dutch, use Google Translate): https://www.rijnmond.nl/nieuws/124541/Flinke-boete-voor-te-l... A truck got a fine of 1500 EUR. The example was dangerously slow (eventually 40km/h), not just slow.

So I will be fined if I follow the speed limit, which is way slower than any other traffic?

No, but you will if you drive significantly slower and obstruct traffic flow.

Re: Tesla’s Autopilot found partly to blame for 2018 crash on the 405

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As another fire engine driver (now officer), this is why more and more departments are employing "blocker engines", old decommissioned, stripped engines to provide this security, without risking a $500,000 engine to $1.5MM tiller. Also, anything that fails to assume that emergency traffic may be at a vastly differing speed from other traffic, or that emergency lights should _almost exclusively result in an autopilot…

> As another fire engine driver (now officer), this is why more and more departments are employing "blocker engines", old decommissioned, stripped engines to provide this security, without risking a $500,000 engine to $1.5MM tiller. Very interesting idea! You wouldn't even need a dedicated bay for it because who cares if it gets faded in the sun or rained on? An old tender that still holds water would be perfect for…

Even better would be a truck with an impact attenuator [1] in the back. Those have the potential of saving the life of whoever crashes into it.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_attenuator

Re: Tesla’s Autopilot found partly to blame for 2018 crash on the 405

#180
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except humans crash into stationary vehicles in lane all the damn time. Most highway pile ups are a simple crash lots of folks drive into the back of. Why's it hard? A vehicle coming from a side road has a lot of movement within your field of vision. When driving on a highway we're well used to the fact and expectation that stuff isn't stopped. When the vehicle ahead emergency brakes or stops you have the growth of s…

Most highway pile ups are a result of drivers following too closely and therefore being unable to stop without hitting the brand-new stationary obstacle where the car they were following used to be.

Quite, but they are still driving into stationary traffic. Nor is it only the immediately following vehicles - it's far from uncommon for vehicles minutes behind to crash.

None of which changes the difficulty in detecting a stationary vehicle, that's in your path, as quickly as you would like.

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