Has Tesla ever said that Autopilot will stop for stationary objects?
Has Tesla ever said that Autopilot is intended to allow the driver to take his focus off the road?
I do think that Tesla can do more to emphasise that Autopilot isn't a synonym for full self driving, but that isn't an excuse for people who are supposed to be acting in accordance with their driver license.
We have a serious problem if "autopilot" cannot avoid an object in plain sight. Everyone interprets "autopilot" to be self-driving capabilities. Some people understand that the performance of this system is tied to the conditions of the road. If you cant handle the most perfect road conditions then you shouldnt call it autopilot. It is gross negligence. Tesla can add whatever warnings they want -- they will not win that case in the long run. Either they will lose in the court of law or in the court of public opinion.
I don't see what lidar has to do with any of this.
No car on sale today has lidar, and yet plenty of them perform speed-adaptive cruise control with varying degrees of steering assistance, from none to hands-off-wheel. They use radar. Tesla cars also use radar. The question is whether the various software algorithms that interpret sensor information are being too quick to dismiss the apparent presence of stationary objects on the road.
My understanding is that most—if not all—adaptive cruise control and autonomous emergency braking systems are unreliable when it comes to reacting to stationary objects at highway speed.
I’d recommend reading some actual reviews of AutoPilot by the hundreds of thousands of people that use it every day, watch some YouTube videos or read some auto review sites explaining it.
You keep your attention on the road. AutoPilot “takes the strain” off micromanaging the vehicle in the lane while you do the executive planning.
It’s a supremely comfortable way to drive. But you are still responsible for driving the damn car.
Okay, but with this autopilot you can be dead if your attention slips for 8 seconds and when nobody else does anything wrong. Are we really convinced that the Teslas are safer than humans when it fails in such fashion?
This is true of driving in any case. 8 seconds is an eternity at 70mph on the highway. You have to look out the window. You can not watch a movie, or check your phone, or fall asleep.
You can, for example, adjust the radio, or take a sip of coffee.
Has Tesla ever said that Autopilot will stop for stationary objects?
Has Tesla ever said that Autopilot is intended to allow the driver to take his focus off the road?
I do think that Tesla can do more to emphasise that Autopilot isn't a synonym for full self driving, but that isn't an excuse for people who are supposed to be acting in accordance with their driver license.