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I can't wait for autopilot in mainstream vehicles but I'm not sure if I'd want to discover an "edge case" (pun intended) on a narrow mountain pass with no guard

I can't wait for autopilot in mainstream vehicles but I'm not sure if I'd want to discover an "edge case" (pun intended) on a narrow mountain pass with no guardrails.

dmix 9y ago
Nor do most people want to deal with "edge case" bugs in any software. Fortunately there has always been an endless supply of people who love trying out new cutting-edge technology who are willing to take this risk... even when it means driverless cars on potentially dangerous roads.
- digi_owl 9y ago
  And all to often people get shanghaied into being guinea pigs by some "push to prod" dev...
smegel 9y ago
I am not sure I would want to discover an edge case anywhere.
skgoa 9y ago
> I can't wait for autopilot in mainstream vehicles This is here already. E.g. pretty much every VW can be ordered with it.
- dougherty 9y ago
  I drive a Passat GTE with lane assist and adaptive cruise control, but if you let go of the wheel for more than a few seconds it starts nagging you to take control of the vehicle again.
  - Daniel_sk 9y ago
    Yeah, probably the same thing as in Skoda vehicles - it's a dumb lane assist tool, it's just a single camera that is watching the line markings on the road. This is only good for highways where it helps you to steer the wheel and you can relax a little more (hands on the wheel). This is far from any autopilot. It would drive you off the road in case of a wrongly painted line :-).
    - izacus 9y ago
      Teslas will happily drive you if the road in that case as well.
jsolson 9y ago
This isn't that terrifying guardrail-free road, though -- I drive this in a Model S ~15-20 times in each direction every winter on my way between Seattle and Whistler. Autopilot is fantastic for that trip between UW and turning onto CA1 where BC99 intersects it. From there up to Lions Bay and from the far side of Lions Bay[0] to Squamish I keep the car in self drive after a few too many attempted suicides by Eddie[1]. It's not that there aren't guard rails, it's just that it really winds about as it hugs the cliff face. For most of that trip Autopilot generally doesn't want to engage -- it knows better when it can't predict the lane boundary far enough into the future. Past Squamish it really depends on conditions. My trip up this Saturday morning was downright boring and autopilot handled the whole thing. On other trips at night the road has essentially been one solid white surface where even humans avoid each other by treating it as one very wide lane in each direction and maintaining lots of clearance. [0]: Lions Bay has a 60kph speed limit; autopilot can generally handle it fine, regardless of conditions, although the wide variance in prevailing traffic speed makes this among the most dangerous parts of the trip. I often wonder how the accident and injury statistics for Lions Bay compare to the rest of Sea to Sky. [1]: My Tesla is named Edison's Lament. Yes, you name your car. Yes, I enjoy this feature.

I can't wait for autopilot in mainstream vehicles but I'm not sure if I'd want to discover an "edge case" (pun intended) on a narrow mountain pass with no guardrails.

dmix 9y ago

Nor do most people want to deal with "edge case" bugs in any software. Fortunately there has always been an endless supply of people who love trying out new cutting-edge technology who are willing to take this risk... even when it means driverless cars on potentially dangerous roads.

digi_owl 9y ago
And all to often people get shanghaied into being guinea pigs by some "push to prod" dev...

smegel 9y ago

I am not sure I would want to discover an edge case anywhere.

skgoa 9y ago

> I can't wait for autopilot in mainstream vehicles This is here already. E.g. pretty much every VW can be ordered with it.

dougherty 9y ago
I drive a Passat GTE with lane assist and adaptive cruise control, but if you let go of the wheel for more than a few seconds it starts nagging you to take control of the vehicle again.
- Daniel_sk 9y ago
  Yeah, probably the same thing as in Skoda vehicles - it's a dumb lane assist tool, it's just a single camera that is watching the line markings on the road. This is only good for highways where it helps you to steer the wheel and you can relax a little more (hands on the wheel). This is far from any autopilot. It would drive you off the road in case of a wrongly painted line :-).
  - izacus 9y ago
    Teslas will happily drive you if the road in that case as well.

jsolson 9y ago

This isn't that terrifying guardrail-free road, though -- I drive this in a Model S ~15-20 times in each direction every winter on my way between Seattle and Whistler. Autopilot is fantastic for that trip between UW and turning onto CA1 where BC99 intersects it. From there up to Lions Bay and from the far side of Lions Bay[0] to Squamish I keep the car in self drive after a few too many attempted suicides by Eddie[1]. It's not that there aren't guard rails, it's just that it really winds about as it hugs the cliff face. For most of that trip Autopilot generally doesn't want to engage -- it knows better when it can't predict the lane boundary far enough into the future. Past Squamish it really depends on conditions. My trip up this Saturday morning was downright boring and autopilot handled the whole thing. On other trips at night the road has essentially been one solid white surface where even humans avoid each other by treating it as one very wide lane in each direction and maintaining lots of clearance. [0]: Lions Bay has a 60kph speed limit; autopilot can generally handle it fine, regardless of conditions, although the wide variance in prevailing traffic speed makes this among the most dangerous parts of the trip. I often wonder how the accident and injury statistics for Lions Bay compare to the rest of Sea to Sky. [1]: My Tesla is named Edison's Lament. Yes, you name your car. Yes, I enjoy this feature.