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Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

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Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems to match the right tool (AI driving) to the right job (well-defined, well-controlled situations). I seem to recall that similar ideas go back to the early 1990s, at least, for highways: Drive your car to the entrance ramp, plug in your destination, and the autonomous system takes it from there. But for many of these things, such as the Bay Bridge or a highway, it seems like there is a simpler solution: Put…

Ive been picturing the rail problem for some time as well. Not just for cars, but also for cargo... just have a constant gondola-like conveyer that detaches a platform from the line to slow it enough to allow for cargo to get on, then re-zip-it backinto the line and speed it along, de-rail it once it hits its exit/location... ideally though, in cities, there would be no surface streets and all cars would have their o…

Underground space isn't unlimited.

Besides, the best integrated transport solution in the world already exists in places like Utrecht, Groningen and Assen thanks to reforms that started decades ago.

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars weigh thousands of pounds and routinely drive upwards of 60 miles per hour. The success of the first iPhone or Facebook app didn't depend on using it to navigate through life-and-death situations not only for the users but also for everyone around them. There are places for 'move fast and break things'. But cars move fast already, and they can really break things.

Are there any interesting papers on formal verification of some of the most modern machine learning algorithms? Clearly when we "verify" Waymo or Tesla auto-pilot, we're going to want to use that stuff, right? Surely they won't just provide insurers with some data about the billions of miles they've driven without accidents and how humans can only drive like a million miles without an accident and try to get the insu…

lol they'll never bother with that

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#374

Content aside, what is the deal with images of screenshots of a forum, then posted to Twitter? Why not include a fax machine in there while you’re at it? Just link to the forum and we can all read the text.

They periodically have times when the forum or at least some subforums are viewable by registration only.

yeah i didn't bother finding out whether the paywall was operational or not, and nobody's gonna read a forum thread in 2018

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#375
post #357

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What is Rio Tinto? I'm curious because it is the name of a local city here in Porto.

One of the world's largest mining companies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Tinto_Group

BHP (largest mining company in the world) and Rio Tinto (second largest) are to parts of Australia as Google and Facebook are to the Bay Area.

And much less apologetic about wielding power.

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#376
post #337

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I heard the same thing about the burnout and turnover. Do companies really think they are saving money by paying peanuts, grinding people down to burnout, and then constantly having to rehire/retrain new people as the old ones leave? Meanwhile the code is a mess because nobody has been there longer than a year and there is no architecture or design continuity. Just frantic patches over other frantic patches by burnt…

I think it's a case of what is seen vs. what is unseen combined with "you get what you measure." "We're paying more for programmers than almost anyone else in the industry!" is an obvious thing a bean counter would notice and point out. Productivity is harder to measure, and all that time lost to training on the job doesn't immediately leap out in spreadsheets because it's blended with actual work.

This is a real problem. But if burndown charts can be translated into dollars, this might be noticeable.

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#377
post #255
post #98

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>His NDA has expired.

I've never heard of an NDA that says "after 3 years you can start giving away trade secrets"

i'm sure "we use fifty different kinds of virtualization and a hundred different operating systems" is valuable information

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#378

It's so weird to see the same bizarre hacky nonsense I would cobble together being used to run cars.

Hacky cobbled together nonsense runs the modern world.

we are all fucked six ways from sunday

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#379
post #342

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> we use it for sub millisecond control of Traffic Lights Why would anyone need "sub millisecond control of Traffic Lights"? Traffic lights are mission critical systems, of course, but even millisecond precision should be more than enough, and possibly even 0.5x-1 second precision...

The real question is: why do you need an entire OS kernel to control traffic lights?

To communicate with all the other traffic lights and sensors at the other intersections on the road to optimize traffic flow.

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#380
post #86

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Not sure if you’re trolling or not. Well played

What would be particularly bad about running a real time application like that on an Arduino? Isn't that what they're made for?

Arduino is not real time.
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