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Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

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Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#241
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s almost certain they are wrong.

Care to elaborate why?

Unlikely. The only comments he's provided here are one sentence sound bites that channel Musk's purest essence.

Companies using LIDAR? "They bet wrong".

People describing how stereo cameras don't inherently see 3D? "Baloney. Based on eyesight".

Companies that have spent years and billions developing and testing autonomy? "Almost certain they are wrong".

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#242
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Autopilot arguably prevents more accidents and deaths than it causes, just to keep this in perspective. So the tobacco analogies can only go so far here.

Keep this in perspective: based on the number of avoidable deaths in Tesla cars driving on Autopilot in otherwise favorable conditions, its arguable that Autopilot causes more accidents and deaths than it avoids, especially given that Autopilot is used in the lowest-risk driving conditions.

Those deaths were not caused by autopilot though.

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#243

I would like to add over here that Tesla does indeed do sensor fusion in their cars. Their Autopilot combines radar and ultrasound with vision to decide where to drive. Commentators bringing up LIDAR are jumping the gun by assuming that this scenario isn't something that these sensors wouldn't have detected in either combination or individually to spot the anomaly. The problem over here is likely to be software due t…

Your comment actually emphasizes why having a lidar is better. Cameras need neural networks to detect objects. Lidars on the other hand provide distance to all the surrounding objects. The neural networks processing the point cloud may not be able to detect what the object is, but because of the distance available in the point cloud data you will know there is something ahead. Fusing radar with camera does help but r…

Lidar is active (so lower res than vision) and uses slightly longer wavelengths (again, lower res). Visible light uses passive solar illumination by day, power-efficient, far more data; and is a problem you need to solve for reliable autonomy independent of lidar.

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#244
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it shuts off with a beep if it can’t handle current conditions. In case you think this kind of abrupt shutoff sounds dangerous, keep in mind this is in the current generation of the system which relies on a human driver being attentive and ready to take over at all times.

> In case you think this kind of abrupt shutoff sounds dangerous, keep in mind this is in the current generation of the system which relies on a human driver being attentive and ready to take over at all times. What is a driver to do when the system randomly decides to brake? [1] Phantom braking has been an issue for awhile, and has yet to be acknowledged by Tesla. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/b5…

They do acknowledge it. You asked what to do. Apply gentle force to the accelerator pedal. And that video is from a super old software version.

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#245
post #105
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is, unfortunately, the problem with neural nets in general. They are amazing logical constructs, but there is a fundamental opaqueness to them that absent sufficient neural network mass to convincingly simulate a human, we can't apply the same methods of formal verification and behavioral inference we could for other more specific machine implementations. No one can explain just why certain weights work at certa…

It’s almost as though you have to treat them like human drivers. We cannot formally verify 16 year olds, either, or sufficiently introspect accurate reasons for their behavior. Instead, we require them to pass a test, we apply actuarial cost models, etc.

16-year-olds can talk and try to explain themselves. Humans try very hard to make themselves understand. Neural nets can't (at least, not yet).

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#246

I would like to add over here that Tesla does indeed do sensor fusion in their cars. Their Autopilot combines radar and ultrasound with vision to decide where to drive. Commentators bringing up LIDAR are jumping the gun by assuming that this scenario isn't something that these sensors wouldn't have detected in either combination or individually to spot the anomaly. The problem over here is likely to be software due t…

> Possibilities like this scare me far more than the lack of LIDAR because replicating a bug like this would be next to impossible. We don't know what we don't know, and we can't explore and understand the system to suss out what we don't know.

I don't think this is true. According to the Tesla live stream a few days ago, the cameras are always gathering data. Tesla cars could have a black box (like planes) , and they could just replay everything that happened up to M minutes before the accident, and retrain neural networks to avoid it later. According to the live, they automatised this process with the "Data Engine".

But anyway, this is definitely not an excuse to beta test the system with actual customer's lives, IMHO.

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://youtu.be/kuxundRB1zM good aeb trigger at speed. they might not avoid the crash entirely, but try to mitigate it. Tesla is quite behind the state of the art here.

Here is the Tesla's Model S video as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5aFZJxuJGQ

yeah I don't understand why there are so many posts in this thread that claim AEB can't do this kind of things with so much video evidence going around.

but here's the point, vision system detects objects it knows how to detect, lidar systems detects obstacles; as such doesn't surprise me a bit tesla is trained to recognize car from that aspect only to plow into 90deg rotated trucks, as when for example they cross an intersection.

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#248
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very close to what is actually happening, though not in real time.

Based on what evidence?

Tesla demonstrated a system doing exactly this at their autonomy event. The video is worth watching whatever you think Tesla.

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#249
post #225
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla (and/or Musk) keep saying it's safe to let the car drive, and then when you let the car drive and it kills you, they say you're holding it wrong. If you're actually trying to increase safety, the right things to build are computers to supervise the human driver, and not systems that require a human to supervise the computer driver. If the human drifts out of the lane, nudge the car back in and beep, but don't p…

A computer supervising the driver is what got Boeing into problems with their MCAS resulting in the 2 plane crashes Tesla also doesn't say that it's safe to let the car drive. There are ample warnings and messages and feedback that say that you have to keep your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel at all times. There are likely more non-AP Tesla/non-Tesla auto accidents and fatalities than there have been AP rela…

> Tesla also doesn't say that it's safe to let the car drive. There are ample warnings and messages and feedback that say that you have to keep your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel at all times.

Tesla had to be "encouraged" to say that "at all times" was in fact an amount less than "every 15 minutes", which it was just a couple of years ago, touch the steering wheel four times an hour.

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#250
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm fully aware of their recommendation. But if Tesla is aware that certain parts of the road are more likely to cause incidents and they haven't communicated that. Well sounds to me like that would be criminally negligent.

So like when a manufacturer puts a label on a set of knives saying “warning, bottom edge is sharp” something like that? Except popping up on the screen as you drive every five seconds so you can read about the hazards you are seeing outside the windows? Nanny car, anyone? I think drivers are already well aware that roads contain an ever changing variety of risks, and they can see the signs of these risks with their e…

You know there's a difference between a kitchen knife and a 1 tonne metal structure travelling at 100km/h on a freeway.

People are dying from Tesla failing to let their users know when and where autopilot should be used.

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