
Introducing Navigate on Autopilot - TonnyGaric
https://www.tesla.com/blog/introducing-navigate-autopilot
======
aerovistae
I'd be more impressed by this if they had fixed the problem where the car
crashes into barriers at lane divergences. Kind of a turn-off to the whole
thing until that's fixed, to be honest. Frankly I don't understand how the
company hasn't been buried in lawsuits for this.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/9pkvy0/psa_v9_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/9pkvy0/psa_v9_still_has_barrier_lust/?utm_content=comments&utm_medium=hot&utm_source=reddit&utm_name=teslamotors)

~~~
shiftpgdn
Maybe the state should take responsibility and realize that poorly maintained
and marked roads lead to accidents that cause injury, including death.

The Model X that hit the barriers in the Bay Area would not have happened if
A. Lane marker painting had been kept under maintenance. They were mostly
missing.

B. The crash barrier had been in place, instead it was missing from an earlier
crash. The missing arresting system caused the car to strike the Jersey
barriers with no safety controls. This is the equivalent of driving into a 6"
wide concrete wall at freeway speed.

~~~
jcranmer
Sure, there is some amount of fault for the system needing more maintenance.
But road conditions are often going to be far from perfect, and that crash is
certainly not atypical conditions.

Either California can shut down the entire highway for a week until they
replace the crash barrier, or Tesla can build their self-driving cars to be
able to recognize only moderately faded white lines.

~~~
shiftpgdn
That's my point. A human driver had hit those barriers just ten days prior. If
there is a part of the road people are driving into constantly maybe we should
look at road design over drivers.

------
amluto
> Navigate on Autopilot can be customized to a driver’s preferences, including
> four settings for speed-based lane changes (Disabled, Mild, Average, or Mad
> Max).

Mad Max is definitely a feature I want self-driving cars to have. </sarcasm>

~~~
ocdtrekkie
I agree, but to give Elon the benefit of the doubt for a moment, labeling it
"Mad Max" may actually discourage people from setting their car to it (as
people often perceive themselves to not be reckless), whereas labeling that
setting something like "Often" may lead to it being selected more frequently.
Of course, this can also backfire if people select "Mad Max" because it's the
only one with a funny label.

~~~
olivermarks
Honestly I'm baffled by how Musk/Tesla get away with all their branded self-
driving-but-you-must-always-be-in control messaging and jokey terminology like
Mad Max mode etc.

Given how aggressively US DoT enforces safety regulations for vehicles you
would have thought there would have been far more pushback, not just on truth
in advertising but more importantly road safety for both SD vehicles and the
people around them.

Presumably the bureaucrats are asleep and not paying attention, so there is no
formal adherence to the levels of self driving that everyone except regulators
seem to regularly quote (Toyota et al) [https://www.economist.com/science-and-
technology/2017/05/25/...](https://www.economist.com/science-and-
technology/2017/05/25/the-long-winding-road-for-driverless-cars)

------
Theodores
Very impressive. However these autopilot features are getting subjectively
less impressive as time goes on. I want a bit more 'wow'.

Autopilot is not so compelling if you live in Europe with 'analog' roads
rather than the mix of well designed, nice and wide 'residential', 'street
level' and 'interstate highway' roads that there are in the U.S.A.

Reminds me of Space Shuttle launches, at the start of the programme people
would be transfixed for hours waiting to see what would happen, a couple of
years later it was 'meh', no need to put the TV on. Even if there was a cool
spacewalk some of the magic was lost, awe levels dropped from 10/10 to 7/10\.
Autopilot is a bit like that, kind of need to see it work going through the
streets of Paris, Cairo or Bombay for it to be back in the realm of stunningly
amazing.

~~~
wffurr
Interesting that you consider US highways and streets to be well designed,
given that they are objectively substantially more lethal to their users than
European roads.

~~~
moogly
There might be additional factors.

a) training and education - it is way more difficult and takes longer to get a
driver's licence in Western Europe than in the US

b) mandatory vehicle inspections - I think this varies by state in the US, but
even the strictest state legislation is still less strict than Western
European countries when it comes to allowing dangerous vehicles on the roads

c) less regulation for truck drivers' work hours - I think in the past decade,
sleep deprivation amongst transportation workers and the results thereof has
received increasing exposure in the press, which is good, but awareness only
goes so far

~~~
wffurr
Sure. But highway design, car centric cities, and high-speed suburban
arterials are a factor as well.

The deaths per VMT measure is EU-wide, not just Western Europe.

------
Gys
> While initially the feature will require drivers to confirm lane changes
> [...], future versions of Navigate on Autopilot will allow customers to
> waive the confirmation requirement if they choose to.

So at least technology wise my dream becomes true: a car that takes care of
the biggest and most boring part of long drives, the highways. Hopefully
legislation will follow soon...

~~~
FPGAhacker
You don't think your drive will become even more boring when your car is
"doing everything" but you are required to "pay attention and be ready to take
over at all times?"

I'd agree if you could trust it and didn't have to be actively involved in
watching your car drive for you. Sounds pretty boring as is though. Sleep
inducing.

It'd be like having a normally very reliable chauffeur that would occasionally
get horribly confused and do something very wrong, and you had to watch their
every move, most of which are perfect, for the remote chance of terrible
confusion and be ready to grab the wheel.

~~~
omarforgotpwd
No, it doesn't get more boring. It is very relaxing and leads to less stress.
I use it almost every day, including driving from LA to San Francisco on
Friday.

------
y0ghur7_xxx
> In both of these scenarios, until truly driverless cars are validated and
> approved by regulators, drivers are responsible for and must remain in
> control of their car at all times.

This makes it sound like it's just a problem with evil legislators not making
it legal for Tesla drivers to drive without paying attention.

Is this the case?

~~~
omarforgotpwd
It doesn't sound like that to me. It sounds like they are saying that this is
NOT a driverless car and you need to pay attention. However, it is a little
bit misleading in that this is all Tesla's software can do right now. Even if
the regulatory framework was in place, they couldn't just enable it instantly.
They have a lot of dev / testing work to do before that happens. But they do
have stuff working in the lab that is more capable than what they've released
publicly.

