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Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

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Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#401
post #388

I avoid new technology, exactly because I'm an engineer. I wonder if that is just me, but when new technology is introduced and hyped, I usually take a quick look at implementations, research, and talks just to get an idea of what the state of the art really is like. As a result, I have become the late adopter among my group of friends because the first iteration of any new technology usually just isn't worth the iss…

This whole self driving, fully autonomous thing has become some sort of strange faux-religion. It's followers see no other possible solution as acceptable. Instead of putting our heads together to make really good driver assistance technologies and being satisfied, the darn thing needs to also drive itself everywhere otherwise we're leaving something on the table! Untill we have zero deaths, we cannot stop demanding…

Comma.ai kind of follows the "improving lane detection until it drives you completely" line, at least according to what I get from this interview with Hotz: https://lexfridman.com/george-hotz/

He's still a bit too optimistic for my taste.

Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#402
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That squarely puts Autopilot in the "Driver Aid" category. That is fine, just don't go telling people that it can drive unassisted.

Before owning a Tesla I did feel like Autopilot was overhyped, but I now realize that's more because of media coverage than anything Tesla is actively conveying. The vehicle software actively encourages driver attentiveness. Moreover when you actually experience Autopilot, it becomes abundantly clear that it can't drive unassisted.

Then don't call it Autopilot and stop saying it will be able to drive you on the highway soon.

Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#403
post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people don't really want all the consequences that come with the distinct lack of rural areas either..

But if you have denser cities, that leaves more room for rural areas. I don’t think anyone is arguing for less rural land, but as it stands, it is legally impossible to build another city like San Francisco or Manhattan in the US, and that’s a problem for sustainability. People want to live in those places, and not just because they are old.

The problem is not that you can't legally build a city like SF in the middle of nowhere. There are hundreds of smaller cities that could grow into bigger ones, but their population growth just isn't there. People wouldn't come to your "New SF" either.

The real problem is:

- Many people choose to live in big hubs like SF or Manhattan because that's where the high paying jobs are

- You can't legally turn SF into Manhattan (i.e. making it denser)

Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like the idea of automatic braking, but arguably plenty of people had irrational fears about seat belts and air bags (although the fears about air bags seem to be coming back)...so I will seriously consider the new safety features once my car insurance offers a significant discount for them.

When I was a kid - this was quite a few years ago - I had some older relatives who refused to wear a seat belt. Being somewhat of a brat, I asked them why. They answered like this: "If I get in a wreck, I don't want to be trapped in the car. I want to be thrown clear!"

This might be just me, but I don't think it's bratty to question truly idiotic behavior.

Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#405
I’ve been using commaai EON for a while and very happy with it. They’ve done the “what it knows, what it knows it doesn’t know” very well.

The system will beep hard at you when the vision system doesn’t have confidence. It only has confidence in well lit, well marked roads. Otherwise it yells at human to take over.

Take eyes off the road, it yells at you. The disengagement rate is pretty high but I like it. I know it does 405 and I5 highways well and that’s where I use it.

Easy to understand the limitations. They also make you explicitly say yes to all the limitations on first start.

Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#406
post #251

For every tragedy, there are tragedies avoided. I can attest to a few. In the last 10,000 miles, Autopilot has: safely swerved to avoid a car that would have sideswiped me, preemptively braked after detecting the 2nd car ahead (not visible to me) had slammed on its brakes, and avoided colliding with a completely stopped vehicle in the center lane of the freeway. And FWIW I've never felt misled about Autopilot's capab…

That squarely puts Autopilot in the "Driver Aid" category. That is fine, just don't go telling people that it can drive unassisted.

> just don't go telling people that it can drive unassisted.

No one does. Literally no one. No owner, not Tesla themselves, not their website, not their sellers. Why do people keep bringing this up. Everybody knows it is not full self-driving, yes we all know, yes and? Where does this zealotry come from?

Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was optimistic like that in university. Great times :) But then I went into consulting and saw that big companies have teams of lawyers that settle proactively out of court to keep inconvenient truths out of the public opinion. Like the first few exploding iPhones. (Just an example, never worked there) BTW, did you hear about the Uber crash where their AI couldn't track a pedestrian and then killed her?

That’s an unfair characterization if you’re talking about the crash in Arizona. Perhaps: “Did you hear about the Uber crash where the AI couldn’t track a pedestrian jaywalking at night across the middle of a nearly pitch black two lane highway and then killed her?” would have been more apt. https://youtu.be/ufNNuafuU7M That being said, I’m a huge skeptic of the current state of self driving cars. I would have assumed…

It only looks pitch black in Uber's badly-exposed dashcam video. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22307013

Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#408
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think self driving cars are a ridiculous solution to a problem we created and doesn't need to exist. The US building out the country for cars wasn't a good way to do transportation. If we just had trains going from city to city and subways in the cities, we wouldn't even need self driving cars.

it's becoming more and more clear. self driving technology will only put more 2000 lb machines on highways clogging up space. USA NEEDS TRAINS!

Not necessarily: a self driving car takes you to a self driving coach for the long distance, then back to sdc for the last miles. All electric. Very efficient.

Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know where you got these papers but you clearly got an awful sampling and I don't think you're giving computer vision a fair evaluation. Granted, we're not quite ready for self driving, but there's no question that the neural network subfield of ML has absolutely exploded in the last 5-10 years and is bursting with productionizable, application ready architectures that are already solving real world problems.

You sound like an NVIDIA salesperson trying to sell me on a $3000 Titan ;) There is no doubt in my mind that an AI with billions of parameters will be excellent at memorizing stuff. I also have no doubt that research activity has exploded, which might be related to the generous hardware grants being handed out... But all that research has produced surprisingly little progress over algorithms from 2004 in the field of…

I wonder how many solutions within the AI field could just be categorized as "Automation"

Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#410

I avoid new technology, exactly because I'm an engineer. I wonder if that is just me, but when new technology is introduced and hyped, I usually take a quick look at implementations, research, and talks just to get an idea of what the state of the art really is like. As a result, I have become the late adopter among my group of friends because the first iteration of any new technology usually just isn't worth the iss…

I've been thinking for reasons to avoid Kickstarter and Indiegogo (as I got scammed on Kickstarter, and am not happy with the overall quality of several succeeded projects), and you gave me inspiration. Thank you.
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