Live data from Hacker News

Waymo CEO dismisses Tesla self-driving plan: “This is not how it works”

arstechnica.com

81–90 of 581 posts

Re: Waymo CEO dismisses Tesla self-driving plan: “This is not how it works”

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's bound to happen, but also likely to be the result of the driver not paying attention.

coffee cups say "be careful this is hot", but the regulator allows a product called "Full Self Driving" to be sold - I think ultimately consumer protection will step in here like it has in Germany [0] 0: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-autopilot-germany/g...

Yeah it's a fantastic example of technological developments far outpacing legislation

Re: Waymo CEO dismisses Tesla self-driving plan: “This is not how it works”

#82
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This matches my experience of how Tesla is viewed in the autonomous car industry. No-one thinks they are a serious contender when it comes to a driverless vehicle (and their business model basically doesn't match with the technology either: every other company is basically going to operate a taxi service because there's far more value to be captured and it can help pay for the hardware making driverless possible)

it's interesting how optimistic long term visions conflict - if you really think autonomous cabs will become widespread then by implication you are also saying that car sales will be drastically lower. Tough to be serious betting on both. The math of "you'll pay more for the car but the car will go out and make money for you as a robotic Uber" sounds like a pyramid scheme to me; if too many people do it, it can no lo…

By the time autonomous vehicles are widespread we will be into the age of embodied intelligence and there'll be way cooler shit to build and sell than cars.

Re: Waymo CEO dismisses Tesla self-driving plan: “This is not how it works”

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To my mind there are certainly a lot of unknowns around interactions with people outside the vehicle. A simple scenario like someone directing traffic around an accident seems like a nightmare for FSD. (Edited: slight wording tweak.)

Waymo following police hand signals: https://youtu.be/OopTOjnD3qY

That's impressive, although a dramatically easier problem than I was picturing.

Imagine nighttime, having to pass an accident, which means driving on the wrong side of the street with other cars beyond the accident waiting, and someone (quite possibly a civilian) waving you on.

Heck, I've been flagged down by a prostitute who wanted to get away from her John, running down the middle lane of an interstate at 2am. That was, admittedly, not a common scenario for a self-driving vehicle to have to deal with.

Re: Waymo CEO dismisses Tesla self-driving plan: “This is not how it works”

#84

Not buying the storyline. Certainly Tesla will have to keep upgrading its systems to achieve true FSD. They could even decide that LIDAR has become cheap enough to use anyway. What they have is cars on the road collecting data. They'll have to collect new data and develop new algorithms on that data but that path is not excluded from them. > "It is a misconception that you can just keep developing a driver assistance…

"What they have is cars on the road collecting data" ... what do the ToS say about this? Is this really true they are gathering data from all their customers? I havent seen uptick in my internet bandwidth as Tesla owner.

Re: Waymo CEO dismisses Tesla self-driving plan: “This is not how it works”

#85

drivers came to trust it way too quickly. Drivers who were supposed to be closely monitoring the system instead spent their time looking at their phones, putting on makeup, and other distractions. Really hope no one dies because of Tesla's autopilot. This is a real risk. Quoting from below: if the car does it right 99% of the time it's just human nature to stop paying attention. The article makes a great point that s…

There's two levels of risk, Tesla owners taking themselves out, and then there is innocent bystanders being taken out. It's pretty infuriating if you consider that we're all put at risk.

Re: Waymo CEO dismisses Tesla self-driving plan: “This is not how it works”

#86

drivers came to trust it way too quickly. Drivers who were supposed to be closely monitoring the system instead spent their time looking at their phones, putting on makeup, and other distractions. Really hope no one dies because of Tesla's autopilot. This is a real risk. Quoting from below: if the car does it right 99% of the time it's just human nature to stop paying attention. The article makes a great point that s…

I mean people have already died sleeping with it on. But it’s also likely saved lives based on their deaths per mile number.

When has someone died while sleeping in an autopiloted Tesla? I've kept a close eye on this space and never heard of this.

Re: Waymo CEO dismisses Tesla self-driving plan: “This is not how it works”

#87
post #57
post #35

I worked with a self-driving product team a couple of years ago. Tesla's approach was looked upon with suspicion and often openly mocked. Tesla's entire self-driving strategy is led by Karpathy, who while brilliant, is an under-experienced researcher with a narrow expertise in large scale 2D CNNs. Tesla (and Comma.ai ?) seem to be the only groups that find Lidar unnecessary for L5 self-driving. I completely agree wit…

Tesla (and Comma.ai ?) seem to be the only groups that find Lidar unnecessary for L5 self-driving. There is another group who find Lidar unnecessary for driving: humans.

wow, getting downvoted for stating this fact. I can't believe the anti-Musk bias here on HN. You would think HN would actually appreciate one of the more innovative entrepreneurs on the planet.

Re: Waymo CEO dismisses Tesla self-driving plan: “This is not how it works”

#88
post #26

I think the FSD beta rollout is completely irresponsible from Tesla. Rolling out a clearly half-baked safety critical technology to its customers (yes, I know it's only a few beta testers) who are untrained is nothing but a tactic to generate hype and get more customers to buy that $10k FSD package. This is on top of Tesla being the least transparent company out there in reporting safety data or their testing methodo…

FSD rollout is purely driven by Elon’s ego. He’s addicted to fame and power, and that comes from image he created of himself being an Iron Man. I’m pretty sure he got to a point where he believes in it, and thinks he’s invincible and can solve any problem, because he’s so much smarter than everyone. Stock bubble making wealthiest man only helped to solidify that.

I don't know, I don't get that feeling. What makes you think that? I don't know much about Elon, but I listened to one of his interviews with Rogan, and he struck me as extremely optimistic, but also grounded and not arrogant.

(I do agree partial-self-driving just seems like a terrible idea. I guess crash stats can reveal if this is true or not, but are perhaps not available.)

Re: Waymo CEO dismisses Tesla self-driving plan: “This is not how it works”

#89
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean people have already died sleeping with it on. But it’s also likely saved lives based on their deaths per mile number.

I’m not sure if I feel easy about this “statistic” - deaths per mile?? These are humans, and more importantly to the business - paying customers. If my product has the possibility of killing my customer, I’d probably not be comfortable with making it market ready (without massively improving its safety features).

Here’s the thing, every car system will fail at some point and potentially cause a death. There is no such thing as perfect safety. It’s really important to quantify things like fatalities per million miles driven. At some point, you push your system into production because, even though at some point the system will fail and kill someone, it will in the mean time save dozens or hundreds of people from dying in preventable accidents. What is critically important is being confident that your system is safer than the alternatives that your customers would use if your product doesn’t ship.
Post reply on HN