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Oddities & Idiocies In Using Autonomous / Self-Driving Vehicles

Yep ... The 'set cruise control and move to the back of the RV' story is a well-worn urban legend that dates back at least as far as the 1970s in the USA. Originally the UL seemed to be focused on mocking certain 'other' people (e.g., senior citizens; rich foreigners) for not understanding technology and being generally stupid. More recently the same basic UL had a resurgence in the context of frivolous or strangely effective lawsuits (a la the McDonalds hot coffee incident).
Cruise Control as Auto-Pilot

Jan Harold Brunvand, the master of urban legends, has a fair bit to say about this legend.

The legend began in the late 1970s when cruise control was first available for RVs (which then was the vehicle always featured in this legend). As he says, “Sometimes it was a retired couple that made the dangerous (but never fatal) error with cruise control, otherwise it was a young and naive driver.”

Versions starring a wealthy student from the Middle East also began circulating at that time (one reader recalls seeing such a tale mentioned in a newspaper in 1977 or 1978), but these don’t appear to have achieved widespread acceptance until 1984 or thereabouts. ...

In the spring of 2002, a telling of the venerable Cruise Control legend became part of a widely circulated “outrageous lawsuits” list known on the Internet as the “Stella Awards“ ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cruise-uncontrol/
 
An American consumer magazine has said that the Tesla Autopilot can be tricked into operating without a driver.

"They tested the Model Y on a closed track and concluded the system could be "easily tricked".

It comes days after a fatal Tesla crash in Texas. Police believe no one was in the driver's seat.

Tesla's Autopilot is an advanced driver assistance system that Tesla says "enhances safety and convenience behind the wheel"."

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56854417
 
Elon Musk has made a statement about the vehicle involved in the Texas crash.
Apparently when purchased it was not bought with some of the more advanced features available as options.
And the road they were on did not have any painted lane markings which the autopilot needs to steer.
 
FunkyTT said:
These self driving cars seem like a recipient for disaster and chaos on the roads. It's bound to get worse the more of them are on the roads . I have a bad feeling about them . Can't see the point. If you need an awake , sober , human driver for "back up" , who needs to pay attention in case back up is needed , then why the point of the self drive in the first place , if you need to pay full attention?.

Just don't see the point if them.

The above story about the car on flames is particularly nasty. ...and the firemen couldn't put the damn thing out and had to ring tesla because the battery kept reigniting. Like I said , a recipe for disaster these cars. Also stupid humans decided to sit in the back and passenger seats and leave no-one in charge as back up.

These incidents are on,y going to get more common. Again I don't see the point of them. More trouble than what they worth. There will be more people buying them to fall asleep/play on phones and not pay attention / not even bother even being in drivers seat. We got enough bad drivers on the roads these days without these things adding more chaos.
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The thing is early technology is never 100% safe and the press likes to try and destroy it to generate clicks.

I'd much prefer cars to be robot-driven rather than the fucked up humans who are currently on the road.

Pissed
Fucked up on Meth
On their phone
Asleep
Just angry.
 
Trevp666 said:
Elon Musk has made a statement about the vehicle involved in the Texas crash.
Apparently when purchased it was not bought with some of the more advanced features available as options.
And the road they were on did not have any painted lane markings which the autopilot needs to steer.
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As many people have said, it's almost impossible to engineer for "stupid". These incidences seem, in all cases, to be driver error, not car error. We have a Tesla and the autopilot is both a nice feature and a bit of a pain. First, it's nice if you are fixing the music or sipping a coffee and on long straight highway drives, it's cool to not have to worry so much about steering. But every minute or so, you have to move the wheel a tiny bit to let it know you are there. It's not just hands on the wheel. So if you move the wheel too much, autopilot turns off. If you don't do this little movement but let it keep going, it eventually turns off (and stays off, you can't use it again until you stop). The morons who think they can take a nap have overridden the system so autopilot disengages and you're in trouble if no one is paying attention. Also, the car makes a hideous alarm noise when it senses slowing or stopped objects in your path.

It is possible to drive by sitting in the driver's seat, starting the process, using the weights on the wheel, moving to another seat, and buckling the seat belt in the driver's seat. This is a flaw that should be fixed, I think, because it only checks the seat once. You can find videos of lots of people gaming the system. Any car can be a hazard if improperly used. There is only so much you can do when people will be irresponsible and who are really making an all-out effort to be reckless.

Someone earlier stated that Teslas are overpriced. They aren't. They are comparable, especially with electric car rebates. But it is a very different driving experience. It's a giant computer used for transport. It's not perfect; no car is. And there are recalls of all types of cars for engineering flaws. Teslas have clearly been under more scrutiny because they seem so weird. One nifty feature, though, is that many flaws can be fixed with a software update that occurs overnight in your garage.
 
Sharon Hill said:
Someone earlier stated that Teslas are overpriced. They aren't. They are comparable, especially with electric car rebates.
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They're still priced beyond the range of most people.
Until they cost as little as the car I bought last year (about £12000), I won't be able to buy one.
 
Mythopoeika said:
They're still priced beyond the range of most people.
Until they cost as little as the car I bought last year (about £12000), I won't be able to buy one.
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Oh yeah, must add... that's the most expensive car I've ever owned.
 
I've got a Rolls Canardly.

It rolls down hills and canardly get up them.
 
A waymo self driving taxi gets confused by cones

"Waymo self-driving taxi confused by traffic cones flees help"​

"A self-driving taxi has blocked a road in Arizona after becoming confused by a lane closed off with traffic cones.

The Waymo vehicle repeatedly drove away from roadside assistance, dispatched within minutes of the car becoming stuck.

Passenger Joel Johnson documented the experience on his YouTube channel."

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57144755
 
Wisconsin deputies had to get this "tired" (apparently sleeping) driver's attention before they could get him to stop. Just as disturbing is the fact this wasn't the first time this driver had been reported for sleeping behind the wheel.
A driver appeared to be sleeping behind the wheel of an autonomous Tesla, authorities say. So deputies pulled him over

A 38-year-old Illinois man was pulled over Sunday after a deputy saw him apparently sleeping behind the wheel of a 2019 Tesla operating on autopilot, the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department said in a news release.

When one deputy pulled alongside the vehicle near the Wisconsin and Illinois border, he saw "that the driver's head was down and was not looking at the road," the release said. The deputy followed the Tesla for about two miles with the squad car's lights and sirens activated before the driver realized he was getting pulled over ...

"I followed you for about two miles and you were sleeping, you were totally like this in the car," one of the deputies can be heard saying in bodycam footage ... "I was upside of you, I was looking at you and you were doing this, your eyes were closed. ..."

In the bodycam footage, which started after the man was pulled over, deputies went back and forth with the driver who repeatedly said he was tired, but not sleeping. The man said he was on his way to work at the time of getting pulled over.

"We had a person call you in sleeping, they followed you from Illinois all the way to Highway 50," one deputy says of a fellow driver who called 911 to report the driver, "and then he [the other deputy] got alongside you, and you were knocked out," the deputy said to the driver. ...

Deputies issued the driver a citation for inattentive driving and ordered the Tesla to be towed from the scene, claiming the driver was unable to operate the vehicle.

There were no other signs of impairment or medical conditions involved with the incident, the deputies noted in their conversation with the driver.

Deputies also said the operator had two prior incidents in which drivers on the interstate called authorities after observing the driver sleeping behind the wheel in February and August of 2020. The deputy said this was his first time dealing with an inattentive driver operating an autonomous vehicle.

Deputies said the operator will need to complete a driver condition report, an investigation to determine if he is fit to operate a vehicle. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/19/us/illinois-man-sleeping-tesla-trnd/index.html
 
Mythopoeika said:
The fact that they pulled him over... does that in fact mean that he was not asleep?
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The deputy had to drive alongside him with lights and sirens blazing for circa two minutes before he noticed, so no - the indications are that he was dozing.
 
EnolaGaia said:
The deputy had to drive alongside him with lights and sirens blazing for circa two minutes before he noticed, so no - the indications are that he was dozing.
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Sorry, I didn't read the article.
 
Well, for the first time (but probably not the last) I have seen a Tesla tooling along with nobody in the front seats. This was on Arizona State Road 60, northwest of Phoenix. This road is the most direct route between Phoenix and Las Vegas. It has alot of heavy truck traffic. The Tesla turned left into a small settlement near Wittman Az, population 700. All streets are unpaved and unmarked with the road lines which I thought Teslas needed to guide themselves. Hmmmm.

It was so startling that my husband and I did a double and then triple take. We could hardly believe it. Repeat mantra "Can't fix stupid, can't fix selfish." :)
 
It's no use designing something to be idiot proof, nature will just produce a better idiot.
 
I would think that it would be harder to stay alert in the driver’s seat if you don’t actually have to do anything from moment to moment. Just sitting there watching passively would be more likely to make me sleepy than actively driving.
 
Kondoru said:
If you find a Tesla out and about by itself, can you claim it as your own seeing as its obviously a stray?
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When it drives into the sea all by itself you could invoke maritime law and claim salvage rights, especially if you live in a coastal area or if you happen to British and live on a floodplain.

So it might be worth following the next one just in case.
 
When they brought in the 20 limit round here drivers lost concentration and there were lots
of bumps, now the limit is ignored by all there's something to keep your concentration again
and it's gone back to normal. with driver less if something does go wrong I cant see anyone
being awake enough to sort it out before the inevitable crunch.
 
XBergMann said:
When it drives into the sea all by itself you could invoke maritime law and claim salvage rights, especially if you live in a coastal area or if you happen to British and live on a floodplain.

So it might be worth following the next one just in case.
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Good luck with that. Lithium and water aren't a good combination.
 
Kondoru said:
I would charge it regularly, and register it as mine with the DVLA, and accompany it when it went out. (Though I understand many cars are happy to stay in the garage)

I would be a responsible Tesla owner.
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Id sell it and buy a proper car :p
 
Don't know if Tesla's are the same but on the only lecky car I ever drove
I found the sound of clinking bottles most distracting.
:omr:
 
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