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Oddities & Idiocies In Using Autonomous / Self-Driving Vehicles

Endlessly Amazed said:
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." :)
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Could you be absolutely sure that the driver wasn't reclined far back in the seat?

The cars, even in "full self-driving" mode, cannot make turns (beyond exit ramps). https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-05-17/dmv-tesla-california-fsd-autopilot-safety

If someone had been able to remotely control the car this way, that would have been illegal.

It appears far too easy to trick the autopilot via steering wheel gadgets but turns? I'm skeptical.
 
Sharon Hill said:
Could you be absolutely sure that the driver wasn't reclined far back in the seat?

The cars, even in "full self-driving" mode, cannot make turns (beyond exit ramps). https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-05-17/dmv-tesla-california-fsd-autopilot-safety

If someone had been able to remotely control the car this way, that would have been illegal.

It appears far too easy to trick the autopilot via steering wheel gadgets but turns? I'm skeptical.
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Hi Sharon - No, I can't be completely sure. I was driving next to the car for over 1/2 mile (left and right lanes) in the afternoon with good light, and was looking in frequently as I could hardly believe what I was seeing. As far as my husband and I could tell, there was nobody in the front. We got a really good look. But, as you say, we are NOT completely sure.

Western Maricopa County, where we live, has testing grounds for various car manufacturers, and we see concept cars regularly on public roads. My husband especially keeps an eye out for weird cars.
 
Endlessly Amazed said:
Hi Sharon - No, I can't be completely sure. I was driving next to the car for over 1/2 mile (left and right lanes) in the afternoon with good light, and was looking in frequently as I could hardly believe what I was seeing. As far as my husband and I could tell, there was nobody in the front. We got a really good look. But, as you say, we are NOT completely sure.

Western Maricopa County, where we live, has testing grounds for various car manufacturers, and we see concept cars regularly on public roads. My husband especially keeps an eye out for weird cars.
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Thanks. I was thinking that it might be a good place to test because of straight roads and all but it seems the tester would still have to get permission so that the local law enforcement would be prepared. And, no one warned the rest of the drivers if that was the case. Seriously, even if someone was reclined and hiding from view, that's crazy.
 
I still think self driving vehicles are a bad idea. I know planes have autopilots, but except in the very rare case of a mid-air collision pilots usually have a minute or two to respond to anything going wrong with the autopilot. You don't have that on the road.
 
Self-driving cars are only self-driving until they become self-crashing.
 
The only way to make them more accident-proof is to provide them with a complete set of sensors and data feeds:

(a) Radar
(b) Road marking sensors
(c) Road sign recognition
(d) GPS, accurate to a high resolution (although the military may not allow it)
(e) Indoor positioning system (for situations where GPS will not work in a tunnel or inside a building)
(f) Microwave radio data feed for communicating with nearby vehicles (for speed data, positioning and emergency situations)
(g) Ultrasonic collision avoidance/detection systems (already standard on many vehicles)

This could seriously add to the cost and would require a powerful AI.
 
Cochise said:
I still think self driving vehicles are a bad idea. I know planes have autopilots, but except in the very rare case of a mid-air collision pilots usually have a minute or two to respond to anything going wrong with the autopilot. You don't have that on the road.
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In my opinion it would only work if every car on the road was self driving and nothing on the road had the element of human interaction
 
I think that what we will see as 'autonomous vehicles' (AVs) start taking to the roads is drivers that 'game the tech', let me explain.

Imagine the scenario in which you are waiting to pull out at a junction onto a busy road.
You are sitting there looking for a gap in the traffic, or a polite driver to let you out.
Suddenly you spot that one of the cars approaching is an 'AV'.
Now, with the knowledge that the AV will avoid an accident by braking, you could 'game the tech' by just pulling out in front of it at the right (safe) moment.
If that had been a regular person driving that car then their reactions might not be good enough and there would be an accident, or it might be a driver who is a 'road rage' nutcase, with anger issues, who would blast their horn and follow you down the road until you have to stop at the next set of lights, or a person who sees 'dollar signs' and allows the accident to happen so that they can make a claim etc etc etc.
But not the AV - that would brake safely, avoid the accident, and then continue on it's way.

I can image a passenger in the AV of the future being late to work one day and apologising "Sorry I'm late, but the car had to stop 13 times for 'gamers' in old clunkers..."
 
And just wait till the local yobs find out how to force a emergency stop bet the passengers
soon get fed up with the seat belt rash.
 
Trevp666 said:
I think that what we will see as 'autonomous vehicles' (AVs) start taking to the roads is drivers that 'game the tech', let me explain.

Imagine the scenario in which you are waiting to pull out at a junction onto a busy road.
You are sitting there looking for a gap in the traffic, or a polite driver to let you out.
Suddenly you spot that one of the cars approaching is an 'AV'.
Now, with the knowledge that the AV will avoid an accident by braking, you could 'game the tech' by just pulling out in front of it at the right (safe) moment.
If that had been a regular person driving that car then their reactions might not be good enough and there would be an accident, or it might be a driver who is a 'road rage' nutcase, with anger issues, who would blast their horn and follow you down the road until you have to stop at the next set of lights, or a person who sees 'dollar signs' and allows the accident to happen so that they can make a claim etc etc etc.
But not the AV - that would brake safely, avoid the accident, and then continue on it's way.

I can image a passenger in the AV of the future being late to work one day and apologising "Sorry I'm late, but the car had to stop 13 times for 'gamers' in old clunkers..."
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They want to make sure their auto braking systems are good, not like these shocking examples



 
Looks like they will thin the yobs out a bit,
I have a GPS with a camera that has a setting that detects a imminent crash,
it's not bad at all maybe a bit on the cautious side you can set it's sensitivity,
it cant bang on the brakes but makes a noise and flashes a warning.
 
Souleater said:
They want to make sure their auto braking systems are good, not like these shocking examples



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I won't be buying a Volvo!
I know my car's auto braking works. When I visited my friend some months ago, some drunken eejit walked casually across in front of the car.
Thankfully, I wasn't going fast. I slammed the brake, but it seemed like the auto braking system beat me. Awesome.
 
A chap was telling me he as a Volvo, he was told they don't sell them as self driving but the car is capable
of it, supposedly he had to touch the wheel every so many seconds, one day he as a test
let go the wheel hands hovering and the thing carried on till he took back control Preston to Blackpool
but he said he would not be trying it again, found it a little on the stressful side.
 
I believe the auto-braking systems on a lot of these regular cars are only supposed to avoid clunking into a stopped vehicle in front of you at under 20mph, so slow-moving traffic queues basically.
 
Trevp666 said:
I believe the auto-braking systems on a lot of these regular cars are only supposed to avoid clunking into a stopped vehicle in front of you at under 20mph, so slow-moving traffic queues basically.
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Volvo seemed confident in their cars ability to stop before it hit a stationary person...until it hit the guy who was there to watch it perform
 
Tesla cameras will now monitor drivers alertness.

"A new software update for Tesla cars appears to include monitoring of drivers through the car's internal cameras when Autopilot is in use.

The "self-driving" feature requires drivers to pay attention at all times, but has been criticised as easy to fool.

Users have been able to activate the assist feature and leave the driver's seat, and video themselves doing so.

But the new feature will detect how attentive the driver actually is."

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57283479
 
Autonomous urban transportation doesn't necessarily involve wheels. Amsterdam is pursuing an effort to develop and deploy autonomous boats on the city's canals.
Amsterdam tests out electric autonomous boats on its canals

Amsterdam didn’t have to look very far when searching for a way to ease traffic on its congested streets. The Dutch capital’s canals were used for transport long before cars and trucks powered by polluting internal combustion engines began clogging its narrow roads.

Already steeped in maritime history, the city’s more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) of waterways are to start hosting prototypes of futuristic boats — small, fully-autonomous electric vessels — to carry out tasks including transporting passengers and picking up garbage.

The Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are collaborating on the Roboat project that aims to develop new ways of navigating the world’s waterways without a human hand at the wheel. ...

At a recent demonstration, one 4-meter (13-foot) long electric boat sailed past a full-size replica of the 18th-century three-mast trading ship Amsterdam ...

Next, it has to learn to maneuver through traffic in Amsterdam’s canals, which are full of private boats and canal cruises for tourists. ...

They are steered remotely by a computer, which processes data from cameras and sensors that scan the areas around the vessel, detecting stationary and moving objects. The vessels are modular so they can be easily adapted for different purposes, carrying cargo or workers.

Developers say they still need two-to-four years to perfect the self-steering technology. ...
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FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/amsterda...nomous-boats-25e91a558f9066b290f7c36ad7f3391d
 
Investinations are underway in the US looking into 30 crashes involving 'Tesla's driver assist', including 10 deaths.

"Thirty Tesla crashes linked to assisted driving system under investigation in US​

Auto regulators have opened probes into crashes involving 10 deaths where the company’s Autopilot system was in use
Reuters

US safety regulators have opened 30 investigations into Tesla crashes involving 10 deaths since 2016 where an advanced driver assistance system was suspected to have been in use.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a list offering details about crashes under review by its special crash investigations programs."

https://www.theguardian.com/technol...sted-driving-system-under-investigation-in-us
 

Tesla car brings itself to a stop after ‘drunk driver’ falls asleep at the wheel​

From Norway.

The footage, captured on a mobile phone camera in Norway, shows the Model S applying the brakes and cruising to a stop.
The 24-year-old driver was allegedly drunk at the wheel after a night out on the town and fast asleep in the driver’s seat.

Detecting he was unresponsive, the car’s Autopilot system kept it in lane and away from other vehicles on the road before pulling it to a stop inside a tunnel.

Probably not the best place to stop but anyway, no harm done.

The car put its hazard lights on as other drivers pulled up to see what was going on.

The Eastern Police District released a statement on its Twitter account saying the man was drunk and denied driving ‘although there is video of him in the car.’

The video of the intoxicated driver, who’s identity has yet to be revealed, was shared widely on Twitter.

It shows him in the front seat of a white Tesla Model S driving down the highway and toward the Nøstvet tunnel, according to Electrek.
This isn’t the first time an intoxicated driver was found asleep inside a moving Tesla. A California man was arrested in November 2018 in Palo Alto in a grey Model S after police officers found him asleep at the wheel.

Tesla recently launched a software update to its cars to improve their self-driving ability.

But the electric car company has also issued a warning to go with it.

It says the software ‘may do the wrong thing at the worst time’ and cautions drivers to ‘always keep your hands on the wheel and pay extra attention to the road.’
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hunck said:

Tesla car brings itself to a stop after ‘drunk driver’ falls asleep at the wheel​

From Norway.

The footage, captured on a mobile phone camera in Norway, shows the Model S applying the brakes and cruising to a stop.
The 24-year-old driver was allegedly drunk at the wheel after a night out on the town and fast asleep in the driver’s seat.

Detecting he was unresponsive, the car’s Autopilot system kept it in lane and away from other vehicles on the road before pulling it to a stop inside a tunnel.

Probably not the best place to stop but anyway, no harm done.
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It (Tesla) says the software ‘may do the wrong thing at the worst time’

WHY!!! Why the hell would you develop software that does the wrong thing, let alone the wrong thing at the worst time?
 
Now we know who is responsible for designing those toasters that burn everything.
 
Nosmo King said:
It (Tesla) says the software ‘may do the wrong thing at the worst time’

WHY!!! Why the hell would you develop software that does the wrong thing, let alone the wrong thing at the worst time?
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They say that to cover themselves legally.
 

Tesla’s Autopilot faces US investigation after crashes with emergency vehicles​

  • Investigators to review 765,000 vehicles made since 2014
  • NHTSA identifies 11 crashes involving first responder vehicles
The US government has opened a formal investigation into Tesla’s driver-assistance system known as Autopilot after a series of collisions with parked emergency vehicles.

The investigation covers 765,000 vehicles, almost everything that Tesla has sold in the US since the start of the 2014 model year. Of the crashes identified by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as part of the investigation, 17 people were injured and one was killed.

NHTSA says it has identified 11 crashes since 2018 in which Teslas on Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control have hit vehicles at scenes where first responders used flashing lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board or cones warning of hazards. The agency announced the action on Monday in a posting on its website

The full article can be found here.
 
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