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Tesla Autopilot Crash Caught on Dashcam

32 points by paulsutter 10y ago

zaroth 10y ago
The most amazing part of the story is that someone managed to find the footage and link it with the Reddit thread. Those /r/ guys have got skills. Wisdom of the mob doesn't always get it right, but when it does it's amazing the watch. But yeah, those road markers drawn straight into the barrier is classic Road Runner.
narak 10y ago
Huge Tesla/Musk fanboy here, but I have no idea how they've gotten away with marketing decade old lane-keeping technology as autonomous driving to customers. Already resulted in a couple of deaths. It's clear from this video that the car didn't event attempt to avoid the upcoming obstacle, while the human driver in the pickup-truck ahead had no issues. And somehow, stage 4/5 autonomy is a year away?
- astrodust 10y ago
  Driving has resulted in innumerable deaths. In most cases the auto-pilot feature increases safety. In a very small number it decreases it. Life's about trade-offs.
  - narak 10y ago
    I agree that autonomous doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be better than humans (by how much we will leave to regulators) but it's not clear that the actual safety of these systems has kept up with the marketing around them. I would love to see the evidence.
    - pm90 10y ago
      > it just has to be better than humans I really don't see this being approved with just that notion. Its most certainly a rational argument, but people aren't good at making rational decisions. So the standard would have to be much much better, if this is to be approved.
      - astrodust 10y ago
        This particular failure of the autopilot system will be addressed in some capacity. The resulting patch will be pushed out to all Tesla cars. Every single driver using autopilot will benefit from this incident. The same is absolutely not true with human drivers.
    - AnsemWise 10y ago
      NHTSA’s full final investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot shows 40% crash rate reduction https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/19/nhtsas-full-final-investigation-into-teslas-autopilot-shows-40-crash-rate-reduction/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/19/nhtsas-full-final-investig... Here's the evidence.
      - mannykannot 10y ago
        The systems that steer the car should be evaluated independently of the emergency braking features, or else the benefits of the latter could mask deficiencies of the former.
- bjarneh 10y ago
  It's nuts, Tesla always end up excused for the AP problems with the same argument: the driver should still pay attention to the road ... he's still in charge vehicle... This kind of technology will cause you to loose focus, and at some point you wont be paying attention to the road at all. When the AP makes a mistake you can be almost certain it's at high speeds as well; as it only engages on very clearly marked roads; which means you'll only have a split second to do anything in your almost dozed off state.
astrodust 10y ago
The "Car needs service" indicator on the dash screen is an under-statement, isn't it?
orasis 10y ago
The author of this article shouldn't be apologizing for Tesla. The car should work to avoid hitting stuff. Period. "The footage shows that the Tesla needed to merge or change lane in order to avoid the barrier – something the Autopilot should never be left to do without the driver intervening."
- mannykannot 10y ago
  I wonder if the driver quietly agreed to a settlement with a non-disclosure clause? We know they are common, so the suggestion is not fanciful.
AnsemWise 10y ago
For all of those saying that Autopilot is dangerous. NHTSA’s full final investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot shows 40% crash rate reduction https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/19/nhtsas-full-final-investig.. https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/19/nhtsas-full-final-investig.... The report by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration says that Tesla’s Autopilots are reducing the number of crashes by 40%.
- MR4D 10y ago
  Not sure why you're being downvoted for posting this... Facts rule, and the NHTSA is one of the best in analyzing accident statistics in the world.
  - _rpd 10y ago
    I agree, this is crucial information for assessing the incident. Autodrive crashes are going to be greater than zero, the important question is are they going to be less than manual driving?
inuhj 10y ago
As a Model X owner the driver violated one of my personal rules for autopilot: If you are not in a center lane then don't engage autopilot. You don't want to be able to collide with a barrier because of a little lane drift.
Tenykitime 10y ago
"The driver should have been awake at the wheel and looking forward. Had he been alert, he could have easily taken over in time to steer the car to the right. Clearly he wasn’t alert in this instance with his hands on the wheel per Tesla’s instructions." I would have to disagree with this assumption. At that speed, there is no way he would be able to recognize what was going on and react in time to prevent the collision. There was such a sudden change in the direction of the lane that I had to watch the video five plus times figure out where things went wrong. In the end, Tesla shouldn't drive into stationary objects
brador 10y ago
Do autonomous cars not have proximity sensors that activate braking?

32 points by paulsutter 10y ago

The most amazing part of the story is that someone managed to find the footage and link it with the Reddit thread. Those /r/ guys have got skills. Wisdom of the mob doesn't always get it right, but when it does it's amazing the watch. But yeah, those road markers drawn straight into the barrier is classic Road Runner.

narak 10y ago

Huge Tesla/Musk fanboy here, but I have no idea how they've gotten away with marketing decade old lane-keeping technology as autonomous driving to customers. Already resulted in a couple of deaths. It's clear from this video that the car didn't event attempt to avoid the upcoming obstacle, while the human driver in the pickup-truck ahead had no issues. And somehow, stage 4/5 autonomy is a year away?

astrodust 10y ago
Driving has resulted in innumerable deaths. In most cases the auto-pilot feature increases safety. In a very small number it decreases it. Life's about trade-offs.
- narak 10y ago
  I agree that autonomous doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be better than humans (by how much we will leave to regulators) but it's not clear that the actual safety of these systems has kept up with the marketing around them. I would love to see the evidence.
  - pm90 10y ago
    > it just has to be better than humans I really don't see this being approved with just that notion. Its most certainly a rational argument, but people aren't good at making rational decisions. So the standard would have to be much much better, if this is to be approved.
    - astrodust 10y ago
      This particular failure of the autopilot system will be addressed in some capacity. The resulting patch will be pushed out to all Tesla cars. Every single driver using autopilot will benefit from this incident. The same is absolutely not true with human drivers.
  - AnsemWise 10y ago
    NHTSA’s full final investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot shows 40% crash rate reduction https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/19/nhtsas-full-final-investigation-into-teslas-autopilot-shows-40-crash-rate-reduction/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/19/nhtsas-full-final-investig... Here's the evidence.
    - mannykannot 10y ago
      The systems that steer the car should be evaluated independently of the emergency braking features, or else the benefits of the latter could mask deficiencies of the former.
bjarneh 10y ago
It's nuts, Tesla always end up excused for the AP problems with the same argument: the driver should still pay attention to the road ... he's still in charge vehicle... This kind of technology will cause you to loose focus, and at some point you wont be paying attention to the road at all. When the AP makes a mistake you can be almost certain it's at high speeds as well; as it only engages on very clearly marked roads; which means you'll only have a split second to do anything in your almost dozed off state.

astrodust 10y ago

The "Car needs service" indicator on the dash screen is an under-statement, isn't it?

orasis 10y ago

The author of this article shouldn't be apologizing for Tesla. The car should work to avoid hitting stuff. Period. "The footage shows that the Tesla needed to merge or change lane in order to avoid the barrier – something the Autopilot should never be left to do without the driver intervening."

mannykannot 10y ago
I wonder if the driver quietly agreed to a settlement with a non-disclosure clause? We know they are common, so the suggestion is not fanciful.

AnsemWise 10y ago

For all of those saying that Autopilot is dangerous. NHTSA’s full final investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot shows 40% crash rate reduction https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/19/nhtsas-full-final-investig.. https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/19/nhtsas-full-final-investig.... The report by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration says that Tesla’s Autopilots are reducing the number of crashes by 40%.

MR4D 10y ago
Not sure why you're being downvoted for posting this... Facts rule, and the NHTSA is one of the best in analyzing accident statistics in the world.
- _rpd 10y ago
  I agree, this is crucial information for assessing the incident. Autodrive crashes are going to be greater than zero, the important question is are they going to be less than manual driving?

inuhj 10y ago

As a Model X owner the driver violated one of my personal rules for autopilot: If you are not in a center lane then don't engage autopilot. You don't want to be able to collide with a barrier because of a little lane drift.

Tenykitime 10y ago

"The driver should have been awake at the wheel and looking forward. Had he been alert, he could have easily taken over in time to steer the car to the right. Clearly he wasn’t alert in this instance with his hands on the wheel per Tesla’s instructions." I would have to disagree with this assumption. At that speed, there is no way he would be able to recognize what was going on and react in time to prevent the collision. There was such a sudden change in the direction of the lane that I had to watch the video five plus times figure out where things went wrong. In the end, Tesla shouldn't drive into stationary objects

brador 10y ago

Do autonomous cars not have proximity sensors that activate braking?