
Ask HN: Why are we so far from reaching acceptable autonomous driving? - comonad-colaboy
We seem to have large datasets that can be used, and the best of algorithms Why have we as a species failed to make acceptable autonomous driving a reality by now? What is missing? Do we not have the math to do this, like some folks say we don&#x27;t to tackle hardest problems in quantum mechanics? (By acceptable I mean, a state wherin there exists a handful of people using it to drive across all terrains and under all weathers a normal human is capable of operating a car in)
======
tsucres
I recently read about this in an article [1] about Tesla's ambition to build a
level 3 auto-pilot.

The article points out several issues about this project that I didn't think
about before reading it. Basically, there's more issues than just "finding the
right math", and on different levels, not only the technical one. I'd
recommend reading it.

[1] [https://dev.to/bosepchuk/is-it-ethical-to-work-on-the-
tesla-...](https://dev.to/bosepchuk/is-it-ethical-to-work-on-the-tesla-
autopilot-software-4lhh)

------
AnimalMuppet
There's a _really huge_ variety of stuff that can happen when you're driving a
car. In my lifetime, I've seen:

\- A signal light malfunction such that I had a green turn arrow across the
path of oncoming traffic, where the oncoming traffic _also_ had a green light.

\- The axle break on the van going around the cloverleaf in front of me (and
props to the driver for not rolling the van after the tire rolled off - I'd be
surprised if autonomous drivers were trained for _that_ ).

\- A pickup truck drop an extension ladder in the freeway. It hit in such a
way that it started spinning. The centrifugal force then made it extend. So
there's this growing, spinning, sliding thing in the middle of the freeway. It
was the single hardest to avoid thing I've ever experienced.

\- A baby stroller rolling across the crosswalk across my path (unaccompanied
by any adults!) just as my light turned green.

\- Hydroplaning.

\- Torrential rain.

\- Show blowing across the road in the grip of 100-mile-an-hour winds.

\- Dirt roads that have rocks in the middle that can take out your oil pan.

\- Failing to clear my car of all the snow on it before I drove it. When I hit
a red light and hit the brakes hard, the remaining snow dumped on the road in
front of me. I then started to slide on what had been (until a moment ago) a
clear road.

\- Having a semi in the next lane hit a groove in the pavement that was full
of water, sending a wall of water across my windshield, rendering me abruptly
blind. On a curve. With a semi beside me.

Sure, you can train the autonomous driver to handle each one of these. But
that's just stuff that I personally have seen. You've made a list of goofy
circumstances to train for. But did you get all the ones that actually happen?
No, you didn't. How's it going to do on some strange situation that it never
trained for? Such situations _are_ going to occur.

~~~
cimmanom
Out of curiosity, how DID you handle the situation with the semi?

~~~
AnimalMuppet
I hit the brakes to try to get out of the wall of water it was throwing, tried
to remember in my head what the shape of the curve looked like from my last
look at it just before the water hit, and just waited to be able to see again.
It took _much_ longer than I wanted it to...

~~~
cimmanom
That sounds terrifying.

Oddly, an autonomous vehicle might have the advantage in that situation, since
ideally it’d have some representation of the shape of the road ahead that
would persist for a few seconds even if its sensors were blinded briefly.

------
kart23
Kinda off topic, but pranks for the next generation are going to be amazing.
Code is just so predictable. I can picture a couple of teens blocking an empty
self driving uber/waymo going to pick up its next passenger, covering its
cameras with paint/sticky notes, and leaving an empty disabled car in the
middle of an intersection for the police to deal with. Dont think the AI is
going to be able to get out and chase them down. Yes, there are cameras but a
handkerchief and a hoodie will solve that. Genuinely curious as to how they
are going to solve this problem.

