Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Elon Musk: Tesla cars will have “autopilot mode” by summer

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 254 posts

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla cars will have “autopilot mode” by summer

#101

Post by JulianMorrison »

tro2102 wrote: post #37
rimantas wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is solving the wrong problem. Car self-driving through 2-4 rush hours does not solve the problem. Not having 2-4 rush hours would.

This is the first step to that solution, though - if all cars are self-driving optimally, that 2-4 hours rush becomes much shorter.

Automated cars can in principle make subtle, shockwave-damping decisions in high density flow, zip together neatly at on ramps and make space for lane crossers at off ramps. And bonus, they can also in principle be doing useful things rather than occupying parking lots.

I expect a slow phase change to car-as-public-transport that never stops rolling when it isn't in maintenance.

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla cars will have “autopilot mode” by summer

#102

Post by Daishiman »

zanny wrote: post #65
waterlesscloud wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get your job to let you work from the car on the way into the office for whatever face time you need, and you're on your way to cutting down the total time devoted to your job/commute.

But we are in a community currently in recoil from remote workers. On HN in the past week I have seen at least half a dozen front page articles about how remote doesn't work or how to do work life balance when remote. If people just cannot function without having their molecules in physical proximity to their bosses molecules you still get stuck with the dumb commutes.

You're seeing the recoil because it's expanding to place we haven't seen before. The outsourcing and remote trends gained traction in 2002, and despite a lot of failures and false starts, it's growing and reaching places and industries it hasn't been to before, hence the backlash by people and teams that aren't competent with them.

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla cars will have “autopilot mode” by summer

#103

Post by nulltype »

tro2102 wrote: post #37
rimantas wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is solving the wrong problem. Car self-driving through 2-4 rush hours does not solve the problem. Not having 2-4 rush hours would.

This is the first step to that solution, though - if all cars are self-driving optimally, that 2-4 hours rush becomes much shorter.

I think it is likely that the rush becomes longer

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla cars will have “autopilot mode” by summer

#104

Post by threeseed »

Cookingboy wrote: post #58
Hytosys wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Judging by the article, "under optimal conditions" is an exaggeration. There was no citation of problems during traffic conditions. My father sits through 2-4 hours of Los Angeles rush hour each day, and this is absolutely a game changer for someone like him. This is stellar.

There are already cars that have this feature, he should look into them. What Tesla is releasing at this stage brings absolutely nothing new to the table.

Absolutely. It's been around for at least a year or two.

My Landrover has this technology as an option as do most brands e.g. BMW, Mercedes.

Tesla is merely playing catch up this in regard.

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla cars will have “autopilot mode” by summer

#105

Post by MichaelGG »

dakrisht wrote: post #75

I'm not positive on this but I believe Tesla either uses technology or licenses patents directly from Mercedes-Benz regarding their whole "self-driving" and "autopilot" marketing here. Case in point: my current car does a variety of self-driving tasks such as: - Autonomous braking - Active lane keeping assist to steer you in the lane if the radar and cameras detect you are swerving - PRE-SAFE collision prevention plu…

I had an '88 Korando with blind spot assistance. It was a $5 option, self install. I put a convex mirror on in addition to the flat ones.

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla cars will have “autopilot mode” by summer

#106

Post by declan »

ForHackernews wrote: post #64
orblivion wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Particularly since they didn't price the cars to include this feature.

I mean, the cars are insanely expensive already. I think they're priced to include plenty.

Teslas are in line with other luxury sedans (of course you may view all of those are insanely expensive). The 60 starts at $64K, cash price counting tax credits, and the P85 is $96K.

Compare that with the starting prices of the BMW 5-series, $50K (base) to $94K (M5). The Porsche Panamera is $78K to $180K starting price. The Model S has been tested against the Mercedes S550, which starts at $94K.

If you look at the performance of the P85D, especially its horsepower and torque, you arguably get far more for your money than you do with any petrol-powered sedan. It's even quicker than the Panamera Turbo.

I prefer lighter vehicles -- the P85D is 50% heavier than my RWD manual transmission'd sports car -- but if I needed a sedan Tesla would now be my default choice.

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla cars will have “autopilot mode” by summer

#107

Post by ewindisch »

tfe wrote: post #93
stdgy wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A co-worker and I were just talking about this. My take on the situation is that this could be partially alleviated if the car were to refuse to get off of the highway until after the driver manually took it out of autopilot. If the driver doesn't respond, skip the exit and stay on the highway sending out alerts until the driver responds. Not exactly optimal, but I feel it may be the safest route. It would be interes…

And if the highway ends?

I envision a not-so-distant future where sleepy drivers wake up 5 states and hundreds of miles away from home. At least with Tesla, drivers might find themselves waking up at a Supercharger.

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla cars will have “autopilot mode” by summer

#108

Post by RowanH »

stevecalifornia wrote: post #50
ohsnap wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, do you still keep your eyes on the road with adaptive cruise control? Or do you tend to do other things?

Mentally it's less stressful to get behind another car and just let the computer control the speed and distance the whole way. You stop caring if they are going 55 or 77. I just sit there and listen to podcasts. I stay alert though, and I've avoided the urge to read or something.

It would be an interesting experiment to measure actual alertness and ability to react.... I would hazard that while you think you might be alert you're probably less so as because you're not actively driving your brain is not ready to react in the same way as if it's constantly processing while driving.

Case in point - I've got two cars, our boring diesel daily driver and 380hp:600kg track day weapon which you really have to be mentally prepared to drive (no driver aids at all). Headed to the track one Saturday morning in said track car, a car in front of me pulled out of the lane to avoid a big a-- bird in the road. Partly because I have to be alert in that car and partly the car itself I managed to treat the bird more like an obstacle course and (narrowly) avoid it. The dumb thing started running off the road then back into my lane(!). Anyway the point is in my Corolla no way would I have reacted in time, while I think I'm conscientious I know my alertness level is way higher in the track day car - it's low, small, has a brutally fast steering rack - a single moment of inattention you'd get away with in Corolla would see you in the ditch in the other car. 3 hours drive in both cars and one of them I'm pretty happy to have a little break afterwards!

A byproduct of the environment, I think autonomous cars/controls are going to reduce the level of awareness and concentration and you'll have some pretty nasty "I don't know what happened" crashes when things happen that the systems can't respond to and human has to drive out of it.

Of course the flip side of the coin, and I can fully appreciate is the reduction of crashes where people doze off and plough right into the back of other cars. So I guess it's a risk reduction numbers game of which is the lesser of two evils?

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla cars will have “autopilot mode” by summer

#109

Post by pbreit »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #21

Every time Elon Musk makes this kind of announcement, his engineering departments groan. As I understand, they have folks actively managing Musk trying to prevent him from promising the moon :)

I hate this sentiment. Yes, Elon makes huge promises. And you know what? He frequently gets there. Everyone quoted in the article says "No". Elon says "Why not?" And you're worried about the engineers.

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla cars will have “autopilot mode” by summer

#110

Post by JulianMorrison »

tfe wrote: post #93
stdgy wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A co-worker and I were just talking about this. My take on the situation is that this could be partially alleviated if the car were to refuse to get off of the highway until after the driver manually took it out of autopilot. If the driver doesn't respond, skip the exit and stay on the highway sending out alerts until the driver responds. Not exactly optimal, but I feel it may be the safest route. It would be interes…

And if the highway ends?

Turbo boost. As is traditional in self driving cars.
Post reply on HN