Beware of Tesla Autopilot

[nationalize the fed]

Watch out for that passing Tesla

Tesla is rolling out an Autopilot update to approximately 60,000 cars around the world. While this doesn’t yet allow drivers to sit back and have a nap, it’s the first step on the road to fully automated driving. The problem is, for the time being at least, other drivers and pedestrians need to be a little wary of the Tesla driving past them.

The Autopilot feature allows the company’s cars to “automatically steer down the highway, change lanes, and adjust speed in response to traffic”. However, Tesla is very clear that drivers should keep their hands on the wheel at all times, because they’re still ultimately responsible for any accidents.

According to BBC News, Elon Musk stated, “It should not hit pedestrians, hopefully. It should handle them well. The driver cannot abdicate responsibility. That will come at some point in the future.” Which is both worrying and reassuring. Musk clearly cannot come out and say Autopilot will prevent accidents from occurring, but he wouldn’t be rolling it out if he thought it was putting people in extra danger. Would he?.

Tesla is pushing the Autopilot update out in North America this week,...snip
MORE: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/beware-tesla-autopilot-microsoft-old-pcs-tech-news-digest/

Published on Oct 15, 2015: Test of the new Tesla autopilot update on a curvy road on a beautiful fall morning

http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/55607-Autopilot-test-on-curvy-road

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

1. I wonder when Uber drivers will realize they're merely

filling the coffers of a $50 billion company whose sole intention is to replace them with self driving cars ASAP and leave the with beat up cars that have racked up 300,000 miles. Or if they're really unlucky, they'll have just purchased a new car and will be stuck with payments without income.

Carnegie Mellon reals after Uber lures away researchers

http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-uber-a-friend-or-foe-of-carnegie-mellon-in-robotics-1433084582

[Jerry442]

2. Here's the key:

Keep an eye out for Tesla, Google, and others to try to get legislation in place that minimizes or even zeroes out any financial liability to the maker that might result when a car using (semi-) autonomous software is involved in an accident.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. So will Tesla autopilot, when combined with faulty GPS data, have people driving off cliffs?

Or is it smart enough to avoid that sort of thing, even if the GPS tells it to go somewhere dangerous?

[Recursion]

8. Fewer than drive off cliffs today

Computers do not get sleepy, distracted, or drunk. Removing human drivers from the roads would save as many lives as getting rid of handguns.

[nationalize the fed]

21. If you watch that video- the autopilot failed nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. What's the point of having auto pilot if driver has to control the wheel ?

Actually, what's the point of having auto pilot if you don't want to drive?

I shudder to think of those cars on Cal. freeways or inner city traffic in a big city.

[Recursion]

9. Right now the most dangerous thing you do is get in a car

Human drivers kill, way too often. We should be looking for a better solution.

[bluedigger]

5. Tesla's Autopilot System Is Awesome And Creepy And A Sign Of A Beautiful Future

The Tesla Model S isn’t the first truly autonomous car on the road and available for sale to the public. We’re not there yet, just as a society. But it is the first car with what Tesla’s calling its “Autopilot” system. And if this is the future not of driving, but of sitting in traffic, then please sign me up.

Autopilot, if it isn’t a full autonomous system, is simple enough in execution. It won’t drive you to your ultimate destination, it won’t make navigational turns without your input, and it doesn’t know what the traffic light or the sign in front of you says. So think of it less like an autonomous system, and rather more like the ultimate execution of cruise control. It uses a forward-looking radar, a front-facing camera, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and GPS to make sure everything stays on the road, and it seems to work well enough using those.

But even if it’s just the holy grail of cruise control, its execution is almost perfect.

I say almost perfect, because it isn’t flawless. I’m not entirely sure that was the car’s fault, however. We drove, or rather operated the system because you’re actually much closer to a “systems operator” than a driver in this case, in about 20 minutes of New York City traffic. Most people, when faced with the chaotic trash soup known as New York City traffic for the first time, instantly back out and make up some meek excuse about wanting to take a taxi instead. So it was very brave of Tesla to have this be the very first place we’d try it.

http://jalopnik.com/teslas-autopilot-system-is-awesome-and-creepy-and-a-sig-1736573089

[Recursion]

6. 30,000 deaths per year being prevented, but "beware"?

Cars dont kill people, stupid drivers kill people. It's time to start taking that factor out of the equation.

[Duckhunter935]

7. Yep

Just a matter of time

[Logical]

14. Just think if early models stop %10 of the deaths. So cool. nt

[uhnope]

10. People already drive like oblivious zombies. Why help them do so even more?

We don't need this. more technological BS indicating derangement.

[Humanist_Activist]

11. You do realize you made an argument for autonomous vehicles, right?

People drive like zombies, they also drive distracted, drunk, oblivious, etc.

Any technology that reduces the need for the human driver is a good thing.

[killbotfactory]

12. computers can now drive better than humans, so... no. nt

[Logical]

15. ?????? nt

[nationalize the fed]

19. If you watch that video

the "autopilot" failed at the end. So - no- not yet.

A 2 1/2 ton vehicle hurtling down the road at 70mph with no hands on the steering wheel- on BETA software- what could possibly go wrong

Even the hardcore Tesla fans on Reddit are a bit nervous

Video: Tesla AutoPilot tried to kill me! Testing Tesla's newly released software for my Model S, the AutoPilot feature, almost resulted in my violent demise.

ViperRT10Matt writes:

Tesla allowing the autopilot to be turned on in non-highway situations is more than enough for a jury to decide it was reasonable for a driver to think it was safe to do so. You can't hide behind "it should be for highways only" if Tesla doesn't disable it outside of highways (which it could easily do).

_Madison_ writes:

Exactly this, the software should be locked so its enabled on highways only using GPS location or something like that. This release by Tesla is batshit insane, the marketing is giving to wrong impression to the public making the system seem way more capable than it actually is.

fooknprawn writes:

This is BETA software folks. Keep your hands on the wheel. The last thing we need right now is an accident or worse with Autopilot.

The media frenzy will be ruthless, unforgiving and the bureaucrats and lawyers will take our toys away.

Please be careful out there.
https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/3oxexj/video_tesla_autopilot_tried_to_kill_me_testing/

Autopilot on roads with oncoming traffic (significant danger?)

danielbigham writes:

I'm feeling both excited and nervous about Tesla's wide release of the Autopilot beta. I've been seeing many videos of people driving with it on roads where there is no median between them and oncoming traffic. This is in stark contrast with my understanding that it is only to be used where there is a barrier between you and oncoming traffic.

I'm posting this here because my spidey-senses are expecting there to be a head-on collision if people continue doing this.

Am I being overly paranoid? Or does survey say that it is very unwise for people to be using Autopilot with no median? (especially > 50 mph)

mdubious writes:

I actually opened up reddit to (essentially) write this exact post.

There are very few people more excited about the future and autonomous vehicles than I am, but... watching some of these videos makes me sweat.

I am tremendously excited (once I get my Model X) for AP, but on nice big highways that are separated and mostly for the torturous bumper to bumper.

The scenario that scares me is the one-two punch of rolling/cresting roads with a slight bend. Reach nearly the top... Car chimes... And sends you right into oncoming.

Yikes

AndyAndrophile[🍰] 26 points 22 hours ago

It's really irritating how everything critical of autosteer is getting downvoted to nothing in this sub right now, because I think there are serious issues with it as it is currently.

I'm as huge a fanboy of this company as anyone in here. I would buy an S tomorrow if I had the money. But there are clear problems with autopilot that have become obvious in just the last day alone. I count at least 3 youtube videos demonstrating SERIOUSLY dangerous behavior of the technology already. The technology IS going to cause a severe accident in short order at this rate.

All of the arguments and hectoring against people posting these videos showing dangerous AP behavior are fatuous in the extreme, typically along the lines of "you aren't supposed to be using it there". Bullshit. The AP technology has the ability to read road signs and follow road markings so if Tesla is going to say that it should only be used on highways and not non-separated roads, put a fucking software block in the thing to make it impossible to enable on roads where it sees double lines in the middle of the road. People are going to use this technology in ways that push its limits, that's what users of any new technology do. To use the Jobsian bullshit response of "don't hold it that way" doesn't fly anymore when we're talking about a multi ton vehicle barreling down the road at 65mph.

dashingtomars writes:

The technology IS going to cause a severe accident in short order at this rate.

I agree, and it will be a PR disaster for Tesla. I hope Tesla has the ability to disable Autopilot on all cars if they need to (without waiting weeks for updates to make their way out).
https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/3p1p6e/autopilot_on_roads_with_oncoming_traffic/

It's one thing if the software is thoroughly tested and drivers adequately warned and prepared. But Tesla has a habit of releasing software and hardware and having their customers do the testing.

Just a matter of time before there's an accident with this.

[MisterP]

13. there's a reason most important busy systems--planes and such--use what's literally

called "Mark I Eyeball" as the final gatekeeper; there's even a slight pushback against automated subways since there's nobody to make a call or "proceed with caution"

any automation will have to be balanced, of course--the Airbus crashes where the autopilot was involved would've resolved themselves most of the time if they'd stopped yanking on the yoke

automated cars ("autocars"? but they're already called that!) have been "a decade away" for three decades now, but even with Moore's law in play AI doesn't act like squishy embodied critters and CAN'T have more than a little real integration with us; so not only will it seem illogical when driving, any transition between autopilot modes is going to mean a heavy difference in driving and "feel"

[Glassunion]

16. I've seen how some humans drive. I welcome this.

Most drivers are great. But a sizable bunch are asses.

I'd personally love to have a system that would drive me to work. In the future, I'd just sit in the passenger seat and read a book.

I love driving, but, too many people are killed each year by those asses.

[olddots]

17. can they program the computers to drive like ass wipes ?

A road rage mode or a texting yuppy mode ? Oh brave new world .

[Blue_In_AK]

18. It's hard for me to imagine how autopilot cars

could ever work in a place like Alaska where streets are covered in ice six months out of the year. Are they going to know to steer into a skid, for instance? Pump the brakes?

[nationalize the fed]

20. I remember reading that the sensors

are blocked by ice and snow. And when they are not-

majesticjg writes:

Oncoming traffic isn't the problem.

The primary steering method is by lane markings. If it's locked on to them, it'll follow them for as long as you like, around corners (even sharp ones) and so on...snip
https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/3p1p6e/autopilot_on_roads_with_oncoming_traffic/

That's another thing with Tesla: Their cars are designed to work well in California. They leave the extreme weather testing to the customer.

[Blue_In_AK]

22. Lane markings?

What are these lane markings of which you speak? Here in Anchorage, it's every man (and woman) for himself out there in the wintertime. Even our widest streets, three or four lanes, are often covered by ice and snow. I don't see autopilot Teslas in our future.