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Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]
- ChuckMcM 10y agoI thought this an interesting video when Elon retweeted it. Basically the car is responding faster than the people do and keeping things from escalating. That said, having been on 101 when the cars in front start dancing like that I have to say my biggest worry isn't stopping in time its having someone behind me not stop.
- tempestn 10y agoI expect an autopilot could deal with that situation much better than a human as well. It should be able to predict if the car behind won't stop. Certainly better than a human driver could (if the human would even notice the car coming from behind with that happening in front). Then, assuming there is some space open in front, as there was in this case, it could accelerate to avoid the collision from behind. Now I'm curious whether Tesla's autopilot is already programmed to do this.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- mgurlitz 10y agoI think the consequences of this would be too significant for Tesla to silently implement. Given an unavoidable rear crash, it could cause a multi-car accident and increase the collision's severity relative to braking.
- tempestn 10y agoI was discussing the case of an avoidable rear crash. Vehicle approaching from rear, either not beginning to slow by a minimum expected distance, or slowing, but with apparently insufficient space to come to a stop. Space in front, allowing for safe acceleration. Seems logical to move out of the way, and I don't see any reason why it would increase the chances of a multi-car accident.
- mgurlitz 10y agoSometimes it would misjudge an avoidable crash, though. When an accident includes a vehicle in front, the middle car is oftentimes liable for following too closely. It might seem logical, but that "safe acceleration" could cause a pileup, and push it into an intersection for example.
- ohwello 10y agoCan a Tesla reliably detect a body lying in the road? I think they would be very reluctant to avoid a highly survivable accident where the Tesla is not at fault, in favor of accelerating toward a crash site.
- dzhiurgis 10y agoDoesn't Tesla record the video of the traffic via its array of cameras?
- Doman 10y agoThey are already programmed to avoid being smashed from behind. Watch these two cases [0:47, 1:54] https://youtu.be/JwknRVjUBCg?t=47 https://youtu.be/JwknRVjUBCg?t=47 https://youtu.be/JwknRVjUBCg?t=114 https://youtu.be/JwknRVjUBCg?t=114
- spraak 10y agoWow, that makes me want a Tesla for real :)
- sinxoveretothex 10y agoThese were not on Autopilot, but human-operated maneuvers. Why would Autopilot have a warning for frontal collisions but not for rear collisions? And why would Autopilot be speed-limited and all that if it was able to use launch mode to avoid a rear collision?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- Rubu 10y agoAnd so was he. The first talking you hear is them telling the kids to stay put until they're sure no one is going to be rear ending them. Does anyone know if these braking systems account for people driving behind you? And if a collision is inevitable, what do they "choose"?
- stevep98 10y agoMost Tesla's on the road don't have rear facing radar. I don't think the rear facing camera is used for anything other than parking. So, that leaves ultrasound, which has limited range. I would think in theory they could use the camera alone to detect an approaching vehicle, and take some remedial action.
- willvarfar 10y agoWhen the car is motionless (e.g. immediately after it has come to a stop from the emergency breaking), does the computer engage the breaks just soft enough so the car stays put? And would this reduce the impact from behind if it were to happen?
- LanceH 10y agoI'm curious if you really want the brakes on full when you get hit from behind. It seems the cars would start to crumple in place until firmly together and you overcome friction, getting launched. With the brakes off, you would immediately accelerate, but perhaps with a lesser initial burst. That's the decision I had to make one day. I saw a car coming to hit me from the rear. I took my foot off the brake and gripped the steering wheel, leaned back and relaxed. It worked out well, but I've always wondered if the brakes make any difference one way or the other.
- svarrall 10y agoThe opposite, you should release the brakes to reduce the effect of the impact so you actually acted correctly.
- Rapzid 10y agoThat's why I usually break fast initially and check the rearview; extend the braking distance to allow extra room for the person behind if they are too close.
- FLGMwt 10y agoI wish more people did this. Pessimistic bumper buffers have saved me from a couple wrecks.
- ClassyJacket 10y agoI wish more people followed at a safe distance.
- Draiken 10y agoI wish humans didn't drive.
- enraged_camel 10y agoI've actually found a really good solution to tailgaters: put very slight pressure on your brake pedal, enough to get the brake lights on, but not enough to actually cause any substantial deceleration. This will cause the tailgater to also slow down, but more than you because they have no way of telling how hard you are braking. The result is increased distance between you and them. Do that a few times and even the most persistent tailgater gets it and either changes lanes or stops riding your ass.
- merraksh 10y agoQuite a few times I saw that the tailgater got the message when I turned on the four indicators.
- heptathorp 10y agoThat could just set someone off and make things more dangerous. If that's happening in the passing lane, get over and let them pass.
- iopq 10y agoBecause Tesla brakes faster than a human in this situation, it doesn't have to brake as much, it can slow down in a timely manner.
- vayarajesh 10y agoAlso sudden hard brakes can cause injuries as well when the seat belt it tighten suddenly, but the software based braking will brake more accurately than a human, as you said in a timely manner.
- merraksh 10y agoThe car responding faster allows for a less steep braking, which makes a rear-end less likely as the car behind you has more time to react (even assuming it doesn't have auto-pilot).
- Zikes 10y agoThis is why I always try to brake early and long. Nothing annoys me more than drivers leaving it to the very last second, giving the person behind them as little time to react as possible.
- sbov 10y agoThis is also why I don't like to engine brake on the freeway.
- ec109685 10y agoTesla puts the brake lights on when you let it break by taking foot off accelerator.
- ASalazarMX 10y agoFor their price, Teslas shouldn't break that easily.
- agumonkey 10y agoNow if all cars had similar detection systems it would probably avoid a massive amount of escalations.
- devy 10y agoYou can't control cars other than yours. On the bright side, if the car behind you is also a Tesla with AutoPilot 8.0+ with latest radar sensors, then you should be just fine :)
- sjg007 10y agoGood thing there are a lot of Teslas and high end cars (with auto brakes) on 101!
- bjterry 10y agoI was very confused about this video until I watched it with the sound on. The Tesla beeps at the driver clearly before the accident has occurred, but doesn't appear to decelerate until afterwards.
- gkoberger 10y agoI imagine it'd get pretty annoying (and dangerous) if it slammed on the breaks every time two cars got close. It knew what was happening and was ready to break when the accident actually occurred.
- mnwg 10y agoThat's not what the article says is happening. The Tesla is alerting because the radar sees the (black) car in front of the (red) car in front (of the Tesla) is decelerating, even if the red car isn't, it's alerting because of that. It doesn't "know" they'll be an accident, it just predicts that it will have to slow.
- acchow 10y ago> if it slammed on the breaks every time two cars got close With some software I'm sure they can determine some unavoidable accidents before they happen.
- BigJono 10y agoAfter watching the footage several times, it seems to me like the car is breaking either just before or immediately at the point of impact, certainly way faster than a human driver could. What I'm curious about is whether the autopilot predicted the crash due to the relative speed of the two cars ahead of it, or if it was reacting solely to the change in speed of the car that braked.
- anexprogrammer 10y agoIf you look through the red hatchback you can clearly see the brake lights of the 4x4 go on (visible from 0:02, though not yet clear), and brake hard to a stop. The hatchback barely seems to react..
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- bobsgame 10y agoI am super excited for the self driving Autopilot to be enabled! I'd love to be able to buy a Tesla for my parents.
- carnivalclown 10y agomorbid question but did they survive?
- KiDD 10y agoeveryone was ok it said in the article
- catoc 10y agoDoes a Tesla continuously record all conversations within the vehicle? The sound recording is clearly from before the warning beep of the impending crash.
- martin_bech 10y agoThis is exactly how Elon described the system. Forward looking radar now bounces radar under car in front, getting back location of 2nd car in front, and responding to sudden braking etc.
- OliverJones 10y agoExactly so. The Tesla Model S dashboard display shows the car in front, and the car in front of that. The little car cartoon goes blue when that car is controlling the speed of the Tesla, and red when that car is causing an emergency stop. I've seen this happen, thankfully without the crash and rollover, in my car (Model S). My car has stopped when the second car in front decelerated fast. This kind of forward-looking speed control can also contribute to the melting of compression wave traffic jams. Radar's a tough signal processing deal: a soda can on the road can mimic a large vehicle. Possible next step in systemic forward-looking safety control, and much cheaper than radar: a few bits of data embedded in stoplights could announce the state of the stoplights of the next car forward (and even the one in front of that). Stoplights are all LEDs now, and they're bright enough to be seen by a really cheap camera even through mist on the glass.
- matheweis 10y ago> a soda can on the road can mimic a large vehicle. This might not be a bad thing... in my early twenties I saw what I thought was a paper cup in the road and ignored it. When I hit it, my car felt like it was thrown up in the air - turned out to be someone's starter motor. I ended up with a cracked wheel rim and a flat tire.
- notatoad 10y agoWhen you say stoplights, do you mean brake lights? Brake lights are on the rear of a car, stoplights control an intersection.
- OliverJones 10y agoYes, brake lights on the vehicles. I regret the confusion.
- relics443 10y agoOne part of my brain is saying: Sweet piece of technology!!! Another is saying: This seems like a very convenient piece of good PR for Tesla (and self driving car technology)... Yet another is saying: I hope the folks in the car are alright
- disposablezero 10y agoRelying on error-prone, distracted, slow humans to guide massive killing machines is playing Russian roulette. AI driving will no doubt be eventually better than the best human driver within a decade, in nearly all instances.
- unclebucknasty 10y agoThe glorification of tech/denigration of humans juxtaposition is getting old fast. This attitude may seem benign, but it's insidious, carries a hint of elitism, and spills over into labor, class, and other aspects of human life. Why can't we appreciate tech advances without devaluing people?
- avar 10y agoBecause certain types of technical advancement requires an element of devaluing people. "Calculator" used to be a job performed exclusively by humans. Moving to mechanical & digital calculators didn't only require gains in efficiency, but also a recognition that this was a job humans were simply worse at than machines, so it was irresponsible to task a human with it. Similarly self-driving cars can't simply be a nice thing to have, eventually we have to have the discussion that it's irresponsible to have human driven vehicles on the road.
- unclebucknasty 10y agoPromoting the tech and respecting people are not mutually exclusive. I'm not arguing that we should endanger people and my comment is not about this one instance. It's about a general attitude of devaluing people. Where do you think that road leads? When Uber vehicles were found to have run red lights a couple of weeks ago, Uber's response was that these were human operated and served as an example of why they must rid the roads of error-prone human drivers as quickly as possible. This, as if humans were a scourge that must be eliminated. There is a strange rising anger with people for being human. And, once we've ridded the roads, labor force, economy, etc. of all the pesky humans, then what? Who owns the tech? Who has the power? Will they be as benevolent as the machines we've learned to worship? What is the value of a human life by then? Quote whatever stats you like, but normalizing this attitude of fallible, dispensible humans is dangerous in many ways.
- ragebol 10y ago> software update enabled Teslas to “see” through vehicles traveling immediately in front of them. In this case, however, the Autopilot seems less like X-ray vision and more like straight-up clairvoyance I don't believe the car is clairvoyant, but my guess is radar bouncing off the asphalt under the cars. And maybe a glimpse of the brakelights?
- _ph_ 10y agoYes, Tesla is using signal processing to detect radar reflections of the car in front of the car in front of you. They showed this when they introduced the firmware with this feature.
- esseti 10y agoAs long as there are people driving we do need such systems.
- kyriakos 10y agoLots of mainstream cars (Nissan, Ford erc) can already do this.
- martin_bech 10y agoDid you watch the video with sound on? The car alerts before the car in front brakes.
- metaphor 10y agoWhat I heard was an alert go off after the first (red) car slightly veered off to the right, allowing sensors to detect the second (black) SUV's abrupt stop.
- nmstoker 10y agoAre you sure you're viewing it with the sound in sync? There's no veering when I watch until well after the audible alarm. But if you look through the red car's tinted windows you do see the break lights of the cars in front - presumably it's that breaking action which the radar unit is picking up. My take on this is the red car wished to switch lanes beforehand and was distracted by that, thus not reacting quickly enough to the breaking. The right indicator goes on and it slowly starts to move across just before impact (but not at a speed / timing which would indicate an effort to avoid impact)
- forgetsusername 10y agoI see the cars in front of that car braking, as well as those beside the Tesla, before the alarm.
- dayaz36 10y agoNo other car can do this actually. Only Tesla
- lopatin 10y agoI think Mercedes has a feature called PRE-SAFE Brake which does something like this.
- doe88 10y agoI'm wondering when the Tesla beeps if it reacts to the behavior of the red car or instead to the cars braking in front of the red car?
- _ph_ 10y agoIt reacts to the car breaking in front of the red car - the trick is to use radar reflections of both the red car and the one in front of it, which propagate below the red car. This feature was advertised with a recent firmware update.
- vayarajesh 10y agoI have seen plenty of 3 car accidents and the last car involved in the accident is purely because it could not brake on time and the first 2 cars involved in the accident are due to human stupidity. I live in Dubai and it is a mix of many cultures and people drive like crazy here, I have seen a single accident involving 6 cars because most of the rash drivers will drive tail-gating At least Dubai really needs lot of Tesla cars to avoid such accidents which are very common here
- _ph_ 10y agoHere is a video by Bjørn Nyland demonstrating the ability of the Tesla radar to detect the motion of the car in front of the car you are following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG3Jp5GyPoc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG3Jp5GyPoc It shows, how the radar detects, that the lead car breaks first - watch how it gets highlighted in the dashboard. This ability helped the Tesla to handle this accident event.
- tim333 10y agoCool video. I guess while self driving cars may have inferior analysis to humans for a while they may outperform through better sensors like the radar here.
- tici88 10y agoMy understanding is that a lot of recent year car models at least in Europe come with a safety feature exactly like this. Here is the video promoting Skoda's "Front Assistant" feature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ounFkvTuobY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ounFkvTuobY If Skoda has it I am sure that all other models in the VW Group's line (VW, Audi, Seat etc) should have it.
- simonh 10y agoThat's not the same. The Skoda video only shows detection of the car in front of you and responding to that. In this case the Tesla also bounces the radar under that vehicle and responds to the motion of the car in front of the car in front of you. If you watch the video again carefully, the Tesla alerts before the car in front brakes, because the car in front of that is braking.
- DavideNL 10y agoyea, the Tesla can see where the driver cannot because the leading vehicle is obstructing the view (it doesn't brake so you don't even get alerted by it's breaking lights...)
- tici88 10y agoYou are right, this video only hints at this at the end but if you read closely the specs Skoda seems to promise exactly that - automatic breaking to avoid collision. Here is a blurb on their Front Assistant feature (http://www.euroncap.com/en/ratings-rewards/euro-ncap-advanced-rewards/2013-skoda-front-assistant/ http://www.euroncap.com/en/ratings-rewards/euro-ncap-advance...) "Skoda Front Assistant is a system designed to help avoid or to mitigate accidents into the rear of preceding traffic. A long-range radar, positioned at the front of the car, can detect vehicles up to 80m ahead which the car is likely to hit unless action is taken." Keep in mind, Skoda is not an upscale brand, they are on the budget end of things. The VW and Audi models might/should have better systems. The new Peugeot 308 also offers a 'Emergency Collision Autonomous Braking System' (http://www.peugeot.co.uk/showroom/308/5-door/p=safety/ http://www.peugeot.co.uk/showroom/308/5-door/p=safety/) but on closer look this is actually 'an automatic brake application to reduce speed by a maximum of 12mph to reduce the severity of impact'. Much less useful, but at least moving in the right direction.
- kbart 10y agoIt's nice to know that Tesla can do that, but sorry, I just don't see anything "magical" in this video -- speed wasn't that high (~110 km/h), the gap was quite wide and the two cars on the right lane also managed to pull over and stop in time too. I have personally avoided much closer encounters driving both car and a motorcycle. In such situations, you should pray that there's no truck behind you.
- eberfreitas 10y ago"speed wasn't that high (~110 km/h)" -- That is as fast as you can go on major roadways here in Brazil> I would say it is pretty fast... " In such situations, you should pray that there's no truck behind you." -- So true. Wouldn't the autopilot account for that before braking that fast? It would cause a much bigger problem if not...
- disiplus 10y agofor highway is really not that high, in my country the police does not even bother with you till 160 kmh. (130 is legal limit)
- aqzman 10y agoWhere is that? Where I live there is a 100km/h limit, and the local police sometimes post on social media when they ticket someone going 160km/h+. That said, 100km/h made sense in 1970, but now with the safety of modern cars, there's no reason that 130km/h shouldn't be the standard everywhere modern cars are prevalent.
- disiplus 10y agohttp://autotraveler.ru/en/spravka/max-speed-limits-in-europe.html http://autotraveler.ru/en/spravka/max-speed-limits-in-europe... as you can see 130kmh is used by most countryes in europe
- nodesocket 10y agoDid you not hear the warning tones trigger before the accident occurred?
- maxnevermind 10y agoI watched a similar video recently, but a car ahead avoided an accident and the car where video was taken from was rammed in the back because of a sudden stop. Which make me think maybe Tesla's response wasn't the best possible.
- vain 10y agoLink? The Tesla would be aware of the cars behind it as well, so this sounds unlikely
- maxnevermind 10y agoIt wasn't a Tesla, couldn't find a video unfortunately.
- rosche 10y agoSo you vaguely remembered something vaguely related to this that you read somewhere?
- thunderrabbit 10y agoUsername checks out.
- zwily 10y agoAt least with the original sensor suite, Teslas are not aware of cars behind them, except for within a couple feet with the ultrasonic sensors. There is no rear radar and the rear camera data is not processed.
- smnscu 10y ago> There is no rear radar and the rear camera data is not processed. Erm (not a radar but cameras + CV/ML) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUw_DMaQ264 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUw_DMaQ264
- Osiris30 10y agoDupe link. More comments at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13268768 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13268768
- ge96 10y agodo the cars have some serious computer hardware or is it really good code/cloud assisted computation? Maybe ANN's active while driving?
- chillydawg 10y agoIt must all be local. You couldn't possibly rely on any kind of network link for a hard realtime task like driving.
- ge96 10y agoYeah would-be neat to have them "globally connected" to Tesla, not sure why you would want that.
- verbify 10y agoI believe it's onboard, they have an onboard GPU - cloud-assisted would have latency problems and would also have problems in tunnels and areas with bad reception.
- ge96 10y agoWhy do you say GPU? I'm vaguely aware that GPU is far superior at multitasking unlike a CPU.
- srssays 10y agoTo be pedantic, GPUs are no better than CPUs at multitasking. GPUs are best at performing one task on a moderately large set of floating-point data (SIMD). The Tesla vehicles use cameras, ultrasonics and radar. So they are processing graphical data (a video stream) and signal data. That's exactly the kind of task that GPUs are good at. However, this only gets you as far as perceiving the world. The vehicles also have to decide which action to take -- following the traffic laws of the jurisdiction they are in -- which is exactly the kind of branchy imperative task that CPUs are good at and GPUs are terrible at.
- 10y ago
- merraksh 10y agoWhat puzzles me here is that the SUV flips over after being hit in the right-rear corner by a relatively small car and bumping into the side barrier. Flipping over in a case like this looks more likely to happen to an SUV than a lower-centered car, and makes me question the safety of SUVs.
- Etheryte 10y agoThis is a commonly known problem of SUVs, their center of gravity is a lot higher so they're a lot easier to flip over. That's why I'm puzzled by people who buy urban SUVs, that is, jeep-like cars that they never intend to use off-road.
- verbify 10y agoQuite often they're a fashion statement more than anything else.
- brohoolio 10y agoTransporting a family takes room. Rear facing car seats don't necessarily fit into smaller cars.
- mjolk 10y agoLarge sedans and station wagons are valid alternatives; SUVs are similarly or higher-priced.
- mjolk 10y agoLarge sedans and station wagons are valid alternatives; SUVs are similarly or higher-priced than safer options.
- knz 10y agoHeight is the big advantage of SUV's and minivans. Kids stay in carseats much longer now and the seats can be quite bulky. It's a lot easier to load them into something with some height.
- sytelus 10y agoThis is great video to study on many levels beyond self-driving car. Some observations: * The car behind didn't show turn signal so probably driver wasn't paying attention. * A small car escaping with not too much damage while SUV rolls over many times * From physics point of view, the car behind produced almost perfect torque that started horizontal spin on SUV * Collisions with barrier at high speed can produce lots of rolls. Many time we see cars upside down in accident and wonder how did that happened. This is how. * The middle barrier did its job wonderfully even against massive inertia of SUV. Cars on other side remained unscathed!
- sumedh 10y ago> Many time we see cars upside down in accident and wonder how did that happened. This is how Living in India, I have seen a fair share of accidents where the car is upside down. I always used to wonder how that happens, now I know.
- sjs382 10y agoIt's also "a thing" in New Orleans. Check this out: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewOrleans/search?q=flip&sort=new&restrict_sr=on https://www.reddit.com/r/NewOrleans/search?q=flip&sort=new&r...
- gingerlime 10y agoI'm feeling rather dumb, but can't really intuitively understand the physics here. I see a small car hitting a pretty huge one and yet spins the huge one several times. I always thought those bigger cars are safer / stronger / more resistant to hits? Is it purely because it hit it at the corner, so all the force went into the "spinning axis"? (did I say I feel dumb?)
- Paradigma11 10y agoThe way i see it the small car just got the SUV to ram the middle barrier. The spinning momentum resulted from that crash and facing normal to the dominant moving direction.
- bborud 10y agoAlso, I think the driver deserves some credit. Note how he keeps calm and rational and tells the other adult occupant in the car to not rush out into the road and cause another accident. His first thought is to make sure he understands what is going on behind him. Cool head, good job. This is the bit driving schools rarely (if ever?) teach and which many drivers never get a chance to think about until they find themselves in a stressful situation where they can end up making dangerous decisions. (And then, of course, most people do not think).
- KKKKkkkk1 10y agoI bet the family of that man in Florida wishes he had AutoPilot Version 8.0!
- pmontra 10y agoOfftopic: 30 brake vs 12 break in this thread so far. Common typo on the way to become an accepted alternative?
- underyx 10y ago30 vs 11 actually, one of the breaks is inside a blockquote. I wouldn't really want 'break' becoming an acceptable alternative, considering how cars braking and them actually breaking are likely to turn up in the same context and be really confusing.
- chillydawg 10y agoA lot of non native English speakers here.
- NinjaViking 10y agoIn my non-scientific experience native speakers are more likely to make homophone errors.
- GavinMcG 10y agoThat may very well reflect reality, but you also point out that it might not. Would it be better, therefore, not to post the claim in the first place? (I'm not trying to accuse you of doing something wrong. This is just a minimal, relatively harmless example of a larger and more concerning phenomenon in this age of information spreading so quickly with so little verification. I suspect we're going to need to take a sharp turn towards self-censoring those little unsupported claims, among other strategies.)
- mikeash 10y agoIt may well be better not to post the claim, but you also seem to accept that it may be. Would it be better, therefore, not to post your claim in the first place? (Personally, I see nothing wrong with posting anecdotal evidence as long as it's clearly identified as such.)
- pipio21 10y agoOne of the main causes of accidents are vehicles left on the road and other vehicles impacting them or the people as they take for granted that traffic will be fluid and are distracted or whatever. You should never leave your children and family on a car on the left lane while you leave, never. I have a neighbor that is paraplegic because of that. His entire family went to the hospital after a vehicle crashed from behind after a minor accident. Your first priority is putting your car and family on a safe place. Proper triage priority number one is avoid another accident, by removing obstacles and signaling other cars.
- bengale 10y agoIn fairness the guy is saying that in the video. Stop, wait to see what the cars do behind, etc. Presumably he gets out when traffic has stopped behind him.
- agumonkey 10y agoThanks you both. I didn't hear what the driver said, and I didn't really realize the potential danger of the left lane. Somehow I was only worried about people on the right side because that's where the flow of car could still move.
- icoder 10y agoExactly, he waits until the situation behind him is safe enough to get out. He also mentions a truck, so I think by the time he gets out, there's a reasonable 'impact' buffer between his family and any moving vehicles (far) behind.
- Rainymood 10y agoThey are speaking Dutch so I thought i'd translate what they are saying: Man: Wacht even wacht even eerst kijken wat er achter ons gebeurt (Wait, wait, first take a look what is happening behind us, don't get out yet.) Man: Blijf zitten blijf zitten. (Stay seated, stay seated.) Woman: Niets doen niets doen niet eruit gaan alsjeblieft. (Don't do anything, don't do anything, don't get out of the car yet please.) Man: Nu kunnen we kijken wat er aan de hand is. (Now we can check out what happened.) Woman: Maar zet hem eerst even aan de kant. (But first put it [the car] on the side of the road.) We now see the man running to the car in a blue shirt on the left side of the screen. Woman to the kids: Jongens jullie moeten even in de auto blijven zitten. (Guys, you have to stay in the car for a little while.) Kids: Ja. We willen er ook niet uit. Moet jij ook blijven zitten? (Ok. We don't wanna go out. Do you [mom] have to go out as well?) Woman: Ja ik moet er uit, ik ben een arts. (Yes I have to go, I'm a doctor).
- logicallee 10y agoI think the most exciting thing (and we're way behind schedule on this, a lot of this could have easily been done literally 30 years ago, no problem at all), is caravan functionality, where a group of cars moves together. If you imagine 20 cars at a standstill for some reason, if they begin to move forward slowly but at the same time (less than 50 millisecond apart) because they're coordinated then they can get up to speed almost as fast as if it were only just one car (let's say they have to speed up a bit more slowly for a safety allowance). But if you factor in human response time, it can be a phantom traffic jam. There is no reason for a traffic jam because there is clear road all the way ahead of the group - yet a traffic jam slowly makes its way back anyway. Like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goVjVVaLe10&t=1m55s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goVjVVaLe10&t=1m55s coordinating this stuff doesn't require computer vision or truly self-driving cars or anything like it and could have been done 30 years ago (1986) over an AM radio standard and some kind of coordination between cars - just nobody sat down and designed that standard. today wireless coordination technology offers dozens of choices (in the gigahertz domain) and caravans could be assembled all but "trivially", cars can know where they are via gps with no problems at all. That would be an exciting move forward. Of course, it only works when everyone is doing it, but if just a few traffic jams instantly disappear (the ones where are the cars happen to have caravan functionality and coordinate) it would improve things for everyone: the traffic jam will disappear whenever it bunches up in a way that happens to consist of coordinated cars. (e.g. a 3-car phantom jam slowly moving backward will disappear whenever it crosses 3 caravan-enabled cars - not every car has to have this functionality). But I haven't read anything about Tesla coordinating even with other Teslas, let alone some standard of intercar coordination. A shame - this stuff is way easier than the self-driving stuff Tesla and others are doing. It's very low-hanging fruit.
- carterehsmith 10y ago>> some standard of intercar coordination There is this "V2V" initiative by NHTSA: https://www.nhtsa.gov/technology-innovation/vehicle-vehicle-communications https://www.nhtsa.gov/technology-innovation/vehicle-vehicle-...
- tobz 10y agoI think you're trivializing even the required effort to coordinate two cars, let alone multiple cars. How do you direct the signal to only cars in your lane? In your direction of travel? How much efficiency is lost if all of the drivers don't give themselves enough space between the car in front of them and their own vehicle? Now they have to wait to move forward. How do you get all drivers to roll forward together at the same rate of acceleration? You could have the last few questions handled by a computer, but you'd still have to overcome a lot of other hurdles (namely location awareness, peer-to-peer communication, infrastructure changes to road signals if you don't have self-driving cars which can detect light states, etc) before you could even accomplish something this simple at scale.
- williamle8300 10y agoThe underlying software for this mainly plugs into the Instagram servers. When it detects unusually high activity in proximity to the car, like commenting, liking, and especially video posts, it makes a cautionary beeping sound. /s
- Rainymood 10y agoThey are speaking Dutch so I thought i'd translate what they are saying: Man: Wacht even wacht even eerst kijken wat er achter ons gebeurt (Wait, wait, first take a look what is happening behind us, don't get out yet.) Man: Blijf zitten blijf zitten. (Stay seated, stay seated.) Woman: Niets doen niets doen niet eruit gaan alsjeblieft. (Don't do anything, don't do anything, don't get out of the car yet please.) Man: Nu kunnen we kijken wat er aan de hand is. (Now we can check out what happened.) Woman: Maar zet hem eerst even aan de kant. (But first put it [the car] on the side of the road.) We now see the man running to the car in a blue shirt on the left side of the screen. Woman to the kids: Jongens jullie moeten even in de auto blijven zitten. (Guys, you have to stay in the car for a little while.) Kids: Ja. We willen er ook niet uit. Moet jij ook blijven zitten? (Ok. We don't wanna go out. Do you [mom] have to go out as well?) Woman: Ja ik moet er uit, ik ben een arts. (Yes I have to go, I'm a doctor).
- leetrout 10y agoThanks, the first part is also in the closed captioning if you click the CC button on the video. Edit: just the first part of what the guy says- not the part about being a doctor from the woman.
- Rainymood 10y agoOh sorry, I was not aware of that. I always disable subtitles because I find them annoying.
- Klathmon 10y agoIf you have the ability, I believe youtube lets you contribute subtitles (both for the transcript and the translation) directly to the video. It might help if you are willing and have the time (and it's enabled). I'm not sure how to go about it though...
- kitcar 10y agoWhat other car brands offer similar a safety feature ?
- slouch 10y agoThis video is unavailable
- teknoxjon 10y agoMirror: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7icfs1Eedc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7icfs1Eedc
- DamnInteresting 10y agoThe original video appears to be down, here is a mirror: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_c5kB1qbjY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_c5kB1qbjY
- dang 10y agoThanks -- changed to that from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APnN2mClkmk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APnN2mClkmk.
- Nuzzerino 10y agoAnd now the mirror is down because the account has been terminated.
- touristtam 10y agoAnd down again, am afraid. :( It is easy enough to find it though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4xt2smoUso https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4xt2smoUso
- draw_down 10y agoIf I see a tree branch snap off the tree, I can reliably predict that branch will hit the ground below a short time thereafter. Just saying.
- codetwelve 10y ago"IF"
- 7a1c9427 10y agoI'm sorry but is everyone here sucked into the "reality-distortion field" that Tesla Auto Pilot seems to be generating? Nothing happens in this video that a competent driver wouldn't have done. Detailed Explanation: In the UK part of the driving theory test is a "Hazard Perception"[1] exercise that test candidates awareness of hazards around them by playing short video clips and getting the candidates to click when they first spot a hazard they would need to respond to. When watching the linked video I 'click' at 0:04 when I see the multiple brake lights though the car directly in-front. This coincidentally is when the Tesla responds with its audible warning. The factors that lead to the Tesla not being involved in an accident in this video were not related to Auto Pilot but due to a competent driver: 1) Maintaining appropriate breaking distance from the car ahead to i. be able to stop in-time but without being tail-ended due to fast breaking ii. have 'thinking distance' to allow for slowed reaction timing 2) Watching the road ahead and noticing solid breaking of ahead vehicles though the directly in-front vehicle. There is NO AUTO PILOT MAGIC IN THIS VIDEO I do not dispute that in other circumstances and perhaps other videos Tesla Auto Pilot HAS prevented and accident that a human would not have. This video is NOT such an example. [1] https://www.gov.uk/theory-test/hazard-perception-test https://www.gov.uk/theory-test/hazard-perception-test Edit: Please see child comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13272626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13272626 clarifying my intentions with this post.
- namuol 10y ago> There is NO AUTO PILOT MAGIC IN THIS VIDEO I think we'd all agree this isn't magic; the point is that it works in spite of the driver. A "competent driver" is going to be especially alert during an exam, but over the course of countless errands and commutes, their guard could be down, their reflexes may suffer due to lack of sleep, etc. Autopilot doesn't get tired, and never lets its guard down. That's what matters.
- 7a1c9427 10y agoI think you may have misinterpreted my comment. My intention was in no way to underplay or diminish the achievement of Auto Pilot but to simply make the point that: In this video, of this event Auto Pilot adds nothing. In this case the driver was "alert and competent". This video does NOT showcase or demonstrate Auto Pilot preventing an accident, reacting faster or better than a human. That is my point. People seem to be extolling how Auto Pilot saved that day in this video. It didn't.
- nojvek 10y agoVery impressive demo. I guess this is possible due to great sensors (radar/lidar), computing power (tesla has the most computing power in a car) and good trained deep nets and algorithms (again tesla,cruise & waymo have the biggest investment here) Does anyone know how I can get my hands on a nvidia drive PX2 board and a quanergy lidar? It seems the lidars and such nvidia boards are only sold in huge quantities to auto makers and not as single units available for people to make their own robots.
- dharma1 10y agoI don't think Tesla use lidars, and I don't think the small Quanergy lidars are shipping yet. PX2 isn't widely available but you can pick up a TX1 which is pretty powerful, if you need something small/low power but still fast enough for your own robot. Runs Ubuntu and CUDA so you can run the same deep learning frameworks (and possibly models, if you optimise them) as on your desktop
- Infernal 10y agoI think this accident could've been entirely avoided had the small pink hatchback been a Tesla. My read on what happened here is that the pink car was making a passing maneuver, and just as the pink car driver checked their right-side mirror/blind-spot and hit the right turn signal to get out of the passing lane, the car ahead abruptly stopped. That explains why the pink car drifted so slowly to the right - it wasn't an avoidance maneuver, it was a simple lane change while unaware of the stopped car ahead. Presumably an autopilot in the pink car would've been able to see the stopped traffic ahead and hit the brakes even while the driver was looking to the right to change lanes.
- drm237 10y agoAutopilot isn't even necessary. Any car with Forward-Collision Warning With Braking would likely have not gotten in an accident, or at least one not nearly as severe. Fortunately, many major manufacturers have committed to eventually making this technology standard.
- so_serious 10y agoThat's not what I got from watching the video. It looks like traffic was slow/stopped in the passing lane. You can see brake lights in front of the pink car, especially in the slowed down clip. The driver of the pink car seemed to be in the process of passing, but didn't pay attention to traffic ahead of them, and thus crashed into the SUV.
- notheguyouthink 10y agoA safer following distance is crucial too, fwiw. It honestly feels like 90% of the vehicles on the highway travel at insanely close distances to each other.
- badwolf 10y agoMy mom got in an accident due to driving too close to the car in front of her. It caused me to really take heart to my Driver's Ed teachers word of wisdom to always leave enough space in front of you to be able to safely brake to prevent that. I wish everyone would do that. It also makes driving in traffic less stop-and-go
- beat 10y agoYesterday, I was saying that autopiloted trucks would take over the long-haul trucking industries. This is why. Driver errors with semis on the highway kill thousands every year. This kind of technology will save lives - not just of the Tesla drivers (or other autopiloted drivers), but of the vehicles they don't hit.
- stevens32 10y agoSome were arguing yesterday that there'd be a strong negative emotional response when a driver-less car causes someone to die. I hope there will be an equal and opposite reaction when people are saved by this technology.
- Feuilles_Mortes 10y agoThere won't be.
- akamaka 10y agoSaving any lives in great, but trucks are a very small part of the problem. Out of 33883 US traffic deaths in 2009, 3380 involved trucks, and truck driver error was listed as a cause 26% of the time. Self driving long-haul trucks probably won't save "thousands" of lives, but certainly hundreds. http://www.trucking.org/ATA%20Docs/News%20and%20Information/Reports%20Trends%20and%20Statistics/02%2012%2013%20--%20FINAL%202013%20Car-Truck%20Fault%20Paper.pdf http://www.trucking.org/ATA%20Docs/News%20and%20Information/...
- SEJeff 10y agoSaving a single life is worth the tech and disruption it will cause. That is one family that won't be missing a father, a mother, or a child.
- givinguflac 10y agoAny saved is a win in my book, though point taken.
- bdhess 10y ago
- cpcat 10y agothe Tesla obviously expected a crash due to the small red car changing lanes crossing another small car on the right. Had nothing to do with the SUV i think.
- samch 10y agoJust brilliant technology at play there. I had to rewatch a couple of times to really grasp how early the Tesla recognized the emergency braking scenario. One thing to note is that most dash cams, mine included, shoot at a fairly wide angle. The Tesla was likely following a good bit closer than it appears from the video alone. This is also an interesting visual demonstration of why that Armco barrier between the opposing directions of traffic is so terrific. It's quite possible that having that in place saved several lives in this accident. It clearly absorbed some of the impact energy and prevented the SUV from crossing into oncoming traffic.
- Animats 10y agoRoad and Track says no.[1] "Except, if you watch the video, you can clearly see cars stopping ahead of the driver who isn't paying attention starting at the two second mark." What you're seeing here is that radars are much better at range rate than vision. Range rate data from a radar is as good at long range as it is at short range. Fortunately, they were right behind the accident. If the wreckage was stopped and partially blocking the left lane, Tesla's autopilot probably would have plowed into it. Like this fatal crash in China[2] and this non-fatal crash in Germany.[3] [1] http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/videos/a32073/no-tesla-autopilot-didnt/ http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/videos/a32073/no-tes... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc0yYJ8-Dyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc0yYJ8-Dyo [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqfgDrynm78 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqfgDrynm78
- merb 10y agowow how many people stopped to help and ran to the cars after realizing what happened.
- dirkg 10y agoI don't understand why people continue to believe that SUVs are safer just because they are huge. Seems like a very common myth. Also Tesla's radar which can detect vehicles 2 cars in front of you by bouncing signals off the car in front is pretty neat tech. Who else is doing this? I'd assume most of the luxury car makers with auto pilots have this too?
- WmyEE0UsWAwC2i 10y agoWhat about the dynamics of a mixture of self-driving and humand driven cars?
- clebio 10y agoWe don't need to speculate as to the speed or proximity of the two vehicles ahead. The data the autopilot system used has it. Does Tesla own that data, or the vehicle-owner? It's collected on the vehicle, which is _owned_. I'm sure Tesla gets a copy -- do they retain the rights as well? I would not be surprised if Tesla were subpoenaed (or otherwise requested of) for the data, in a case like this (similar to the recent Amazon Echo news, or cellular providers with geolocation in abduction cases).
- HappyTypist 10y agoIf you're in the EU, you can get this data.