Tesla Auto Pilot cars

chillidoggy

Sadly, the tech has killed some poor individual.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36680043

But if you have to keep your hands on the wheel as advised by Tesla,  what's the point of it?

joeyowen

The keep your hand on the wheel is surely a get out clause?

Much like coffees saying the contents are hot 

It's awful, but I hope it doesn't bring an end to the progress Tesla are making

Sporky

I think "the tech has killed" is a strongly skewed viewpoint based on the information available.

It reads that the truck pulled over into the space occupied by the car. Neither the truck driver nor the Tesla owner did anything to avoid the collision?

joeyowen

Sporky said:

I think "the tech has killed" is a strongly skewed viewpoint based on the information available.

It reads that the truck pulled over into the space occupied by the car. Neither the truck driver nor the Tesla owner did anything to avoid the collision?

Also saying the sun was so bright it affected what the Tesla car could 'see'

crunchman

One of the articles on it, the Guardian maybe, did quote some stats that Teslas had done 130 million miles in autopilot mode and there is normally 1 fatality for every 94 million miles in the US.

I think there will always be some risk, but if they can conclusively demonstrate that the overall risk is lower then it will get regulatory approval.  The battle of public opinion might be very different though.

If they have an idea what caused it, then they can hopefully improve the software for the future.  From what I've read though, they may need to improve the hardware.  Apparently it struggled to see a white truck on a bright day.  Might need to add some kind of radar or other sensing technology to the sensors that won't get confused by it.

Bygone_Tones

I dont think I would ever feel happy relying on autopilot to drive for me like that. Not sure its a solution to anything really, apart from making people more lazy and worse drivers.

hugbot

chillidoggy said:

Sadly, the tech has killed some poor individual.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36680043

But if you have to keep your hands on the wheel as advised by Tesla,  what's the point of it?

It shouldnt really be thought of as a self driving car as people are touting it as, its basically an advanced cruise control.

Although thats basically what "autopilot" is on planes too. People have been overhyping it beyond what tesla intends it for.

lloyd

Bygone_Tones said:

I dont think I would ever feel happy relying on autopilot to drive for me like that. Not sure its a solution to anything really.

Yeah, how has technology ever improved the human experience hey?

This is what they said about cars when they first came out, horses much better, and aeroplanes and everything else probably.

The benefits will be, less congestion, less accidents, less use of fuel.

Fretwired

R4 interviewed an expert this morning who said is was well known that the Telsa had blind spots with it's sensors and radar.

octatonic

chillidoggy said:

Sadly, the tech has killed some poor individual.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36680043

But if you have to keep your hands on the wheel as advised by Tesla,  what's the point of it?

It is very sad that someone has died.

This is new tech- we aren't quite at the stage of having completely autonomous vehicles.

People who aren't prepared to accept the limitations of the tech should stick to regular cars until those limitations are worked though.

I'm not blaming the victim here- but it does seem as though the driver was assuming the technology could be more autonomous than it is.

Chalky

I raised this on the old thread about driverless trucks. This area is wide open for some very lucrative litigation. And it won't be easy to close it down - doubts about technology are now fixtures in our culture. And while doubts remain, the chance of winning compensatory litigations stays high.

thermionic

joeyowen said:

Sporky said:

I think "the tech has killed" is a strongly skewed viewpoint based on the information available.

It reads that the truck pulled over into the space occupied by the car. Neither the truck driver nor the Tesla owner did anything to avoid the collision?

Also saying the sun was so bright it affected what the Tesla car could 'see'

Car drivers use that excuse to get away with killing cyclists.

Sporky

thermionic said:

Car drivers use that excuse to get away with killing cyclists.

It's worked for me, several times.

lloyd

Sporky said:

thermionic said:

Car drivers use that excuse to get away with killing cyclists.

It's worked for me, several times.

Worked for my dad too (didn't kill anyone) cyclist riding like a cunt and the old man mowed him down.

Advised to take the knock, but he funded his own defence and got it thrown out of court-cyclist 100% at fault and looking for some compo, ended up paying my dad's substantial legal fees

strtdv

It's not designed to be fully autonomous and should be viewed more as a lane assist/blind spot alert feature, which is indeed what it is advertised as. It's never meant to replace driver judgement.
Sounds like the driver was going along assuming the car would deal with any issues. Not the car's fault

stickyfiddle

It's very sad that this chap has died (he'd already done a fair bit of youtube stuff with the Tesla), but inevitable that it'll happen at some point. I do wonder whether the "autopilot" mode actually gives some drivers a false sense of security. If it's already avoided multiple accidents for you I can imagine you might get a little more trusting in the system than Tesla would intend. 

Another big question is what happens in the old "kill one or kill many" scenario - what are self-driving cars going to be programmed to do when faced with the possibility of hitting a crowd of people versus hitting just one, or even going over a cliff and killing its owner. It's going to be an interest decade or two while this stuff gets worked out.

capo4th

One of my neighbours has ordered one of these did a PX on his Ferrari

Sporky

stickyfiddle said:

Another big question is what happens in the old "kill one or kill many" scenario - what are self-driving cars going to be programmed to do when faced with the possibility of hitting a crowd of people versus hitting just one, or even going over a cliff and killing its owner. It's going to be an interest decade or two while this stuff gets worked out.

There was an interesting IET article about it. Essentially, people want autonomous cars to kill their passengers in preference to harming other road users. Unless it's their car, in which case RAMMING SPEED.

http://eandt.theiet.org/news/2016/jun/driverless-cars-kill-passengers-morality-poll.cfm

WezV

I was in a new car with my boss the other day and it did the whole automatic distance control thing when in cruise control

Worked great when a car in front changed its speed, but gave us a scary moment when a van pulled out in front and it took just a bit too long to decide to brake, and broke way too hard when it did.

i guess the real point to highlight is that he decided not to brake because he wanted to see what the car would do.   Wonder how many other idiots will take a similar approach when trying out new driving technology

Clarky

joeyowen said:

Much like coffees saying the contents are hot 

or this packet of nuts may contain nuts

which is nuts

cos I absolutely want it to contain nuts

Sporky

But if that's on a packet of peanuts, which aren't nuts, it has informational value.

You know it's not just peanuts in there.