
Why Tesla’s Auto Pilot Can’t See a Stopped Firetruck - jv22222
https://www.wired.com/story/tesla-autopilot-why-crash-radar/
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Animats
This is the _fourth time_ a Tesla on "autopilot" has crashed into something
partially blocking the left lane. The fire truck was, according to the Mercury
News, stopped partly in the breakdown lane at the left and partly in the left
lane.[1] Here's Tesla killing a driver in China with exactly that bug.[2] I've
posted two other videos of crashes like this before, one from Germany and one
from the US.

The Mobileye system just doesn't do well with obstacles on the sides. This was
well known years ago; you can see Mobileye's videos with boxes around cars it
recognizes. This is why you have to do self-driving as geometry first - if
there's something there, you can't hit it, even if you can't identify it.
LIDAR-based systems map everything out there. Understanding is optional. When
in doubt, don't hit it.

It's no good expecting the driver to take over. The driver can reasonably
expect the system to react to a clearly visible obstacle, but doesn't know
whether it will steer around it or stop. By the time the system has failed to
react, much of the driver's reaction time has been used up.

Tesla's system as shipping is apparently too dumb to steer around an obstacle.
It's just lane-following and auto-brake. They don't mention that much.

[1] [https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/22/tesla-on-autopilot-
sl...](https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/22/tesla-on-autopilot-slams-into-
parked-fire-truck-on-freeway/) [2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc0yYJ8-Dyo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc0yYJ8-Dyo)

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hawktheslayer
This a a really useful article for me to read since I have a car with adaptive
cruise control and have only slowly learn to trust and rely upon it for my
daily commute. Now I will be searching for my owners manual and actually
reading the thing.

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waynecochran
That's a situation that is practically impossible to solve. You are following
a car at 60 mph, but there is a car in front of it at a dead stop -- the car
in front swerves out of the way at the last second -- no time to react. BOOM.

~~~
eesmith
If there's no time to react then you are too close to the car in front of you.

