Tesla Model S waffling

[equ]

Some limitations? This sounds terrible, and would apply 2X to the mess we deal with in NJ or NYC. To me, personally, sounds like a feature that should not have been released. And the manual might have warnings and what not, but we ALL ignore that. You have the company's very public CEO talking about an across the country drive by auto pilot soon. That implies, to the public, a almost-solved problem.

This is a risky move by Tesla and flippant commentary by Elon. What happens if half-baked autopilot fatalities start rolling in?

[rumatt]

Driver appears to snooze at the wheel of his Tesla while the car drives itself on LA highway
http://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/news...-on-la-highway

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by rumatt

Driver appears to snooze at the wheel of his Tesla while the car drives itself on LA highway
http://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/news...-on-la-highway

Everyone thinks that was staged... Having just tested what happens if you let go of the wheel, the car would come to a stop within a couple minutes.

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by equ

Some limitations? This sounds terrible, and would apply 2X to the mess we deal with in NJ or NYC. To me, personally, sounds like a feature that should not have been released. And the manual might have warnings and what not, but we ALL ignore that. You have the company's very public CEO talking about an across the country drive by auto pilot soon. That implies, to the public, a almost-solved problem.

This is a risky move by Tesla and flippant commentary by Elon. What happens if half-baked autopilot fatalities start rolling in?

I suggest trying it out before reacting so negatively.

The driver is still in control and can take over at any time. I purposely tested it to extremes on roads with no other traffic to get a feel for what it can and can't do. Every time you engage autosteer, a warning comes up. Letting go of the wheel too long results in other warnings and the car will come to a stop if you don't follow the instructions.

Crossing the center line was not good -- but I was the driver and I let the car continue. If there was oncoming traffic, I would have kept the car in my lane instead of letting it go over the line.

I don't have a link offhand, but I saw a post on TMC that Musk made a comment in Norway recently stating that the airbag deployments with autopilot enabled are half the frequency than when AP is not enabled.

[equ]

I just think they may be shooting themselves in the foot if they end up getting sued and their progress hampered. He does imply x-country capability. Sounds like

cruise control -> distronic -> ... some stuff ... -> autosteer -> ... lots of stuff ... -> full auto-pilot

As much as I like boxsters and old m3's and driving myself, I do want auto-pilot to succeed. I think it's a much harder AI problem than Elon or the comp sci community acknowledge. I have friends in AI who think full auto-pilot will be a solved problem in a few years. I disagree.

[Sharp11]

Originally Posted by ZBB

I suggest trying it out before reacting so negatively.

The driver is still in control and can take over at any time. I purposely tested it to extremes on roads with no other traffic to get a feel for what it can and can't do. Every time you engage autosteer, a warning comes up. Letting go of the wheel too long results in other warnings and the car will come to a stop if you don't follow the instructions.

Crossing the center line was not good -- but I was the driver and I let the car continue. If there was oncoming traffic, I would have kept the car in my lane instead of letting it go over the line.

I don't have a link offhand, but I saw a post on TMC that Musk made a comment in Norway recently stating that the airbag deployments with autopilot enabled are half the frequency than when AP is not enabled.

I'm with equ on this - we live in a country with a failing and marginally maintained infrastructure as it is, AP requires certain standards to work at any kind of base level.

And what happens in snowy climates where there are snowbanks to contend with? It'll make the overgrown bushes problem you dealt with seem like a walk in the park.

AP is a World's Fair kind of fantasy, a better reality would be for our country to invest in high speed rail - where there'd be control over the infrastructure and less unpredictability - high speed rail is a technology that's available today and works well in other countries.

[John V]

What better way to beta test your self-driving car than to put it in the hands of consumers who are neither trained in its use nor completely sure what it's capable of doing and not doing (i.e. "I thought it would stop on its own," she said after plowing into the car in front of her)?

[JST]

Exactly. The way AP has been handled is ludicrous.

[clyde]

Originally Posted by equ

Some limitations? This sounds terrible, and would apply 2X to the mess we deal with in NJ or NYC.

How much driving have you done in other metro areas? You often refer to NYC metro like its unique and so much worse than elsewhere. My experience with the area is that it's far from good, but not noticeably worse than most other metro areas, particularly those with salt and freeze/heat cycles.

This is a risky move by Tesla and flippant commentary by Elon. What happens if half-baked autopilot fatalities start rolling in?

One of the magazines recently had an interview with the head of Google's car program. If I remember what he said right, he idea is that while the self driving future won't be perfect, it will be better...not that no one will die because the machine fucks up, but fewer people will die than than die from human fuck ups.

I think that's an interesting notion since that approach only works sometimes. In many cases, if any fatalities can be attributed to a disruptive mechanized system, that's it for the system. Can Tesla withstand a multi-billion class action suit? I doubt it. Can anyone picture a jury siding with a company that testifies, "yes, our system can kill people and we knew if before we turned it on"?

Originally Posted by ZBB

Everyone thinks that was staged...

Clockwork.

[clyde]

Originally Posted by JST

Exactly. The way AP has been handled is ludicrous.

I got some more details on that thing our mutual friend told us about. AP wasn't involved, but there did appear to be some belief that active systems would have stopped it from happening.