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Tesla has lane-assist, adaptive cruise control and a few other goodies. Many auto manufacturers have those things. You still have to manually follow GPS directi

by hellcow 10y ago

Tesla has lane-assist, adaptive cruise control and a few other goodies. Many auto manufacturers have those things. You still have to manually follow GPS directions. Google/Waymo is actually piloting a car from origin to destination without a steering wheel or pedals. That's a much more difficult challenge. Put another way, no blind person is going to sit behind the wheel of a Tesla and tell the car to take him/her to the supermarket. Google's car actually does this, on real roads, today... and that's amazing.

mtgx 10y ago
Tesla already seems to have that, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3DbrYx-SN4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3DbrYx-SN4 The issue is Google is doing it with (prohibitively) expensive hardware, so we don't know yet if Google's self-driving system works with cheaper Autopilot 2.0-level hardware that the other car makers are going to use as well.
- dgacmu 10y ago
  "The person in the driver's seat is just there for legal reasons" -- but note just how closely that person's hands are to the wheel, in an obvious state of readiness. That person is 100% ready to take over the car if it messes up. Tesla had the luxury of running test drives until they had a success. This is a different thing than putting a car on the road with no steering wheel and saying bon voyage. The first is a demonstration of a single successful instance (which is probably repeatable on average); the second is a much stronger demonstration of a > 99% success rate.
  - londons_explore 10y ago
    Googles car only does 25 mph. They might have made that video when they only have a 95% success rate, because in the 5% chance of collision it would be at low speed, with a very light vehicle, and very unlikely to cause a fatality. https://www.aaafoundation.org/sites/default/files/2011PedestrianRiskVsSpeed.pdf https://www.aaafoundation.org/sites/default/files/2011Pedest...
- refulgentis 10y ago
  http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/optoelectronics/mit-lidar-on-a-chip http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/optoelectr...
bluehawk 10y ago
> Put another way, no blind person is going to sit behind the wheel of a Tesla and tell the car to take him/her to the supermarket. That's exactly what Tesla is marketing and working on with their new self-driving features, and you can buy cars that will allegedly be capable of this today. "All you will need to do is get in and tell your car where to go. If you don’t say anything, the car will look at your calendar and take you there as the assumed destination or just home if nothing is on the calendar. Your Tesla will figure out the optimal route, navigate urban streets (even without lane markings), manage complex intersections with traffic lights, stop signs and roundabouts, and handle densely packed freeways with cars moving at high speed. When you arrive at your destination, simply step out at the entrance and your car will enter park seek mode, automatically search for a spot and park itself. A tap on your phone summons it back to you." From https://www.tesla.com/models/design https://www.tesla.com/models/design
- zimbatm 10y ago
  I'm looking forward to seeing calendar spam invites bring people to unexpected locations. https://plus.google.com/+RonnieBincer/posts/ec3aZmhNMwg https://plus.google.com/+RonnieBincer/posts/ec3aZmhNMwg
  - nickonline 10y ago
    I would assume it wouldn't take me to any meetings I had not accepted.
aoeu345 10y ago
>Google's car actually does this, on real roads, today. It should be obvious that Tesla is going to win this race. Tesla already does fully autonomous driving, they released that video in November. And they build real, production cars. "Real artists ship", as Steve Jobs said. If you a manufacturing ace, would you join the company with a long list of failed projects and no actual production cars, or would you join the company that is building 500,000 of the most advanced autos right now? If I was a hardware expert, would I join Google who shies at giving a fraction of it's cash to hard tech, or Tesla who buys german automation companies? Or plain old software. Tesla has magnitudes more data and can update neural networks to hundreds of thousands of cars at a whim. Soon millions.
- pg314 10y ago
  If Tesla executes perfectly they might stand a chance. They don't have much margin of error though. One lost lawsuit because of an accident caused by a bug in their software, and they are out of business...
  - NolF 10y ago
    I find that notion very frustrating. 30,000 people die on the road in the US every year and no one seems to bat an eye, a self driving vehicle has one and it's the end of the world. The expectations seems rather unrealistic and the media seems to love creating a controversy.
    - mhermher 10y ago
      Well, in the former case, that is the fault of the driver (or another driver). In the latter case, it would be the fault of the manufacturer. It's not even remotely the same thing. Remember those out-of-control Priuses, where the manufacturers were at fault. Toyota got plenty of backlash for it.
      - ghaff 10y ago
        I find this an interesting question. With the exception of OTC and prescription drugs (for which there are still lawsuits) I have trouble coming up with other consumer products when used as directed and properly maintained are still directly involved in killing people because... well, stuff happens. This isn't an argument against using autopilots but it is an issue that hasn't been really addressed so far.

by hellcow 10y ago

mtgx 10y ago

Tesla already seems to have that, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3DbrYx-SN4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3DbrYx-SN4 The issue is Google is doing it with (prohibitively) expensive hardware, so we don't know yet if Google's self-driving system works with cheaper Autopilot 2.0-level hardware that the other car makers are going to use as well.

dgacmu 10y ago
"The person in the driver's seat is just there for legal reasons" -- but note just how closely that person's hands are to the wheel, in an obvious state of readiness. That person is 100% ready to take over the car if it messes up. Tesla had the luxury of running test drives until they had a success. This is a different thing than putting a car on the road with no steering wheel and saying bon voyage. The first is a demonstration of a single successful instance (which is probably repeatable on average); the second is a much stronger demonstration of a > 99% success rate.
- londons_explore 10y ago
  Googles car only does 25 mph. They might have made that video when they only have a 95% success rate, because in the 5% chance of collision it would be at low speed, with a very light vehicle, and very unlikely to cause a fatality. https://www.aaafoundation.org/sites/default/files/2011PedestrianRiskVsSpeed.pdf https://www.aaafoundation.org/sites/default/files/2011Pedest...
refulgentis 10y ago
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/optoelectronics/mit-lidar-on-a-chip http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/optoelectr...

bluehawk 10y ago

> Put another way, no blind person is going to sit behind the wheel of a Tesla and tell the car to take him/her to the supermarket. That's exactly what Tesla is marketing and working on with their new self-driving features, and you can buy cars that will allegedly be capable of this today. "All you will need to do is get in and tell your car where to go. If you don’t say anything, the car will look at your calendar and take you there as the assumed destination or just home if nothing is on the calendar. Your Tesla will figure out the optimal route, navigate urban streets (even without lane markings), manage complex intersections with traffic lights, stop signs and roundabouts, and handle densely packed freeways with cars moving at high speed. When you arrive at your destination, simply step out at the entrance and your car will enter park seek mode, automatically search for a spot and park itself. A tap on your phone summons it back to you." From https://www.tesla.com/models/design https://www.tesla.com/models/design

zimbatm 10y ago
I'm looking forward to seeing calendar spam invites bring people to unexpected locations. https://plus.google.com/+RonnieBincer/posts/ec3aZmhNMwg https://plus.google.com/+RonnieBincer/posts/ec3aZmhNMwg
- nickonline 10y ago
  I would assume it wouldn't take me to any meetings I had not accepted.

aoeu345 10y ago

>Google's car actually does this, on real roads, today. It should be obvious that Tesla is going to win this race. Tesla already does fully autonomous driving, they released that video in November. And they build real, production cars. "Real artists ship", as Steve Jobs said. If you a manufacturing ace, would you join the company with a long list of failed projects and no actual production cars, or would you join the company that is building 500,000 of the most advanced autos right now? If I was a hardware expert, would I join Google who shies at giving a fraction of it's cash to hard tech, or Tesla who buys german automation companies? Or plain old software. Tesla has magnitudes more data and can update neural networks to hundreds of thousands of cars at a whim. Soon millions.

pg314 10y ago
If Tesla executes perfectly they might stand a chance. They don't have much margin of error though. One lost lawsuit because of an accident caused by a bug in their software, and they are out of business...
- NolF 10y ago
  I find that notion very frustrating. 30,000 people die on the road in the US every year and no one seems to bat an eye, a self driving vehicle has one and it's the end of the world. The expectations seems rather unrealistic and the media seems to love creating a controversy.
  - mhermher 10y ago
    Well, in the former case, that is the fault of the driver (or another driver). In the latter case, it would be the fault of the manufacturer. It's not even remotely the same thing. Remember those out-of-control Priuses, where the manufacturers were at fault. Toyota got plenty of backlash for it.
    - ghaff 10y ago
      I find this an interesting question. With the exception of OTC and prescription drugs (for which there are still lawsuits) I have trouble coming up with other consumer products when used as directed and properly maintained are still directly involved in killing people because... well, stuff happens. This isn't an argument against using autopilots but it is an issue that hasn't been really addressed so far.