Tesla ‘Autopilot’.

[clivem2]

Some details:
https://www.latimes.com/business/st...ull-self-driving-technology-failure-not-fraud

The thing is that once you understand some simple basics of what’s required it becomes clear that a standalone autonomous vehicle is a huge stretch and one that’s unlikely to work safely enough. In my view autonomous vehicles will work but they need:

- exemplary and consistently signage on roads
- clear road markings everywhere
- mesh networks / 5G to include all road users where all the vehicles close by know what every vehicle will do
- remove most/all human driven vehicles as they would cause chaos
- standards defined for each country such that the rules of the road are clear and implemented across all vehicles

 

[sean99]

I had a similar experience on two wheels riding on a desolate country road travelling at about 120km/h. As I crested a hill, I saw an escapee cow slowly crossing the road, and she was right in my path of travel. There was no way I could have stopped in time, so I had one of two choices: Veer left or right. In a blink, I saw that the cow saw me, so I anticipated it would stop walking and I chose to veer right to her front. She did stop, and I missed her by about two feet. The drama lasted all of about five seconds.

Good job cows don't have the instincts of squirrels. I guess squirrel evolution resulted in randomly darting back and forth making it less likely that a bird of prey will catch you, but it really doesn't work nearly so well on roads. I've only killed one while out on my bicycle (during a time trial, downhill on the tri bars, so I nearly fell off), but so many near misses.

 

[Cav]

It’s incredibly easy to snap the neck of a baby so if you’re thinking a 10 mph crash into a pram should be survivable you may be surprised. Babies in proper seats have died when cars have been side-swiped, the adults can be totally uninjured. There are so many scenarios to account for. We’ll get smarter at this but we will also make mistakes on the way.

What we don't need to do is overcomplicate matters.

 

[Cav]

The thing is that once you understand some simple basics of what’s required it becomes clear that a standalone autonomous vehicle is a huge stretch and one that’s unlikely to work safely enough. In my view autonomous vehicles will work but they need:

- exemplary and consistently signage on roads
- clear road markings everywhere
- mesh networks / 5G to include all road users where all the vehicles close by know what every vehicle will do
- remove most/all human driven vehicles as they would cause chaos
- standards defined for each country such that the rules of the road are clear and implemented across all vehicles

Much of that could be covered by GPS and by multiple cameras, lasers, radar, lidar and whatever else.

 

[James]

I'll bet that five seconds felt like five minutes!

In heightened-sensitivity slow-mo, so indelibly etched in my memory. It was nearly 40 years ago.

 

[davidsrsb]

Much of that could be covered by GPS and by multiple cameras, lasers, radar, lidar and whatever else.

Not in Asia with swarms of small motorcycles weaving around you, even worse than the cycle couriers in London

 

[clivem2]

Much of that could be covered by GPS and by multiple cameras, lasers, radar, lidar and whatever else.

Sure, this can work in best case scenarios, those sensors are necessary but not sufficient for high levels of safety. You want as much data as possible from multiple source such that good decisions can be taken. Bear in mind that in certain conditions some of those sensors will not provide data or may even provide false data. You want to simplify this as much as possible but scaling up autonomous driving to be ubiquitous presents an incredible number of possibilities for crashes and deaths.