Live data from Hacker News

Six cars aced new pedestrian detection tests

arstechnica.com

41–50 of 73 posts

Re: Six cars aced new pedestrian detection tests

#41
post #2

I have to turn the pedestrian detection off every time I drive past the local school. Why? The kids figured out that it's really easy to make new cars emergency brake by just pretending to walk onto the road. People suck.

people suck or kids will be kids?

Why are you excusing shitty behavior with a trite phrase?

Re: Six cars aced new pedestrian detection tests

#43
post #16
post #2

I have to turn the pedestrian detection off every time I drive past the local school. Why? The kids figured out that it's really easy to make new cars emergency brake by just pretending to walk onto the road. People suck.

Personally, I would also brake if a kid pretended to walk into the road. There just has to be one kid who isn't pretending for it to become a really big issue.

As a human, this behavior does not look like a kid walking into the road. They wait, take a single exaggerated step forwards and immediately back off.

But hey, thanks for reminding me to buy a dashcam.

Re: Six cars aced new pedestrian detection tests

#44
post #12
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same thing I guess? It's humans sabotaging a safety feature intended to protect them.

Kids don't know any better yet. That being said I would probably lose my temper as well when faced with such a situation.

If they don't know by that age (attending school), something is very wrong.

Re: Six cars aced new pedestrian detection tests

#45

Interesting that Tesla, with what I would have assumed to be a much more sophisticated system didn’t do as well. Anyone care to have a guess why?

The pedestrian detection and automatic emergency braking systems are separate from autopilot. They are always on, even if autopilot is not in use. As I understand it, they are different code, more conventional and similar to the systems in other cars, where autopilot is a grand research project/extended beta. As with most things Tesla they are likely to improve over time with OTA updates.

Re: Six cars aced new pedestrian detection tests

#46
post #17
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kids don't know any better yet. That being said I would probably lose my temper as well when faced with such a situation.

When I'm dropping off my kids and other kids run in my way I usually just stop to chat or play with them, but I'm doing this when walking or on a bicycle. I guess if I wore a 2-ton suit of power armor I'd just be pissed off instead :)

The main problem here is that the 2-ton suit of power armor doesn't really care about what's behind it when it slams the brakes for a pedestrian, you would probably be pretty upset if you were biking behind me when this happens.

I think it's a great thing that the car prioritizes pedestrian safety, but it's very unfortunate that people would abuse this.

Re: Six cars aced new pedestrian detection tests

#47
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars are the leading cause of dead children in the US and this is what annoys you?

How'd you arrive at this conclusion? That's a bizarrely uncharitable interpretation of what I wrote. I assure you, I'm annoyed by many other things too. >Cars are the leading cause of dead children You know, this obviously is exactly why it annoys me to turn off the pedestrian detection. It's not like it protects me, sitting in my car.

The idea behind what I wrote (which I realize now was unpopular) was that a somewhat overzealous safety system shouldn't be a big deal compared to the possibility of it preventing thousands of dead kids a year, if deployed at scale. Asking such a system to distinguish pretend behavior seems like a big ask.

Re: Six cars aced new pedestrian detection tests

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars are the leading cause of dead children in the US and this is what annoys you?

lol, cars arent the cause. people who can't drive are.

Truth be told I personally think infrastructure and cultural norms that take automobiles as the default preferred road use are the real cause, but at the point of impact the car, operated by a driver (or machine) is the cause.

Re: Six cars aced new pedestrian detection tests

#49
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How'd you arrive at this conclusion? That's a bizarrely uncharitable interpretation of what I wrote. I assure you, I'm annoyed by many other things too. >Cars are the leading cause of dead children You know, this obviously is exactly why it annoys me to turn off the pedestrian detection. It's not like it protects me, sitting in my car.

The idea behind what I wrote (which I realize now was unpopular) was that a somewhat overzealous safety system shouldn't be a big deal compared to the possibility of it preventing thousands of dead kids a year, if deployed at scale. Asking such a system to distinguish pretend behavior seems like a big ask.

>somewhat overzealous safety system shouldn't be a big deal compared to the possibility of it preventing thousands of dead kids a year

I totally agree with you on this, I was just observing an unfortunate byproduct of an otherwise great system.

>Asking such a system to distinguish pretend behavior seems like a big ask.

I agree, I'm certainly not demanding that anyone do anything to "solve" this issue.

Re: Six cars aced new pedestrian detection tests

#50
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they’re all failing in low light conditions Isn't this an issue with lights ?

No, because car lights only illuminate some of the surrounding area. You can't illuminate much more without causing issues for other road users (which is why there are laws around car head lamp & bulb design & usage).

Easy - just remove windows on cars so other car users are not impacted.
Post reply on HN