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Unless someone has ever used an auto pilot in something like a Cessna, that person would probably have a wildly overoptimistic idea of what an autopilot does. E

Unless someone has ever used an auto pilot in something like a Cessna, that person would probably have a wildly overoptimistic idea of what an autopilot does. Even on a passenger jet it's really not that smart, there's just lots more volume to explore so it's hard to kill everyone. A better analogy would be cruise control. It controls essentially one variable. As does lane keeping. You combine a couple of these things and you think it's smart, and it isn't. We learnt this (edge cases between single variable trackers) ~40 years ago in aircraft, that there are places in the flight envelope that combinations of single variable trackers will still let you go, but will also kill you.

freehunter 9y ago
There used to be the same problems with cruise control, though. People thought it would brake automatically and steer around corners, and would get into accidents that proved their assumption wrong.
drawkbox 9y ago
Yeah autopilot is similar in airplanes to what autopilot is on Teslas. Not sure what else you could call it without it also being confusing. Autopilot is a tool to stay in your lane and prevent common scenarios like keeping speed, avoiding obstacles and keeping distance, though there are still possible edge cases like this one appeared to be that can be more dangerous than not using it as the systems are not fully autonomous. Even with airplanes, if something gets in the way, autopilot won't always save you and can only alert you when the situation gets bad i.e. oncoming airplane or obstacle, altitude, speed etc. We fly in planes with autopilot and we are safer for it, but pilots/drivers still need to be alert and operating the plane. Teslas aren't fully autonomous and probably can't truly be until everything is connected and more cars on the road are autonomous for expected behavior. I trust autopilot in planes but still want a pilot. Most likely autopilot will be more useful in large buses, trucks, shipping, boats, airliners than individuals as you will still need a driver most of the time. Even the Uber crash could have possibly been avoided with a more alert driver. One area that may cause more crashes in the interim is trusting the software too much, autopilot that does work six sigma 99.999999% of the time may lead to a possible issue of driver comfort with the technology that may still have edge cases that can endanger them. This issue was a factor in the Tesla crash and the Uber crash I think a huge overlooked part of the failure here was the previous accidents at this part of the road and the lack of repair. We have a serious infrastructure issue with disrepair, non automated/untracked driving of humans probably ends up badly in these areas but goes unnoticed or is suppressed as road design can be a big factor, this automated crash highlighted an issue here at this offramp/fork that probably would go unnoticed and cause more issues. If nothing else, automated driving will have the data to fix these bad areas of our infrastructure and double down on safety and protections.

freehunter 9y ago

There used to be the same problems with cruise control, though. People thought it would brake automatically and steer around corners, and would get into accidents that proved their assumption wrong.

drawkbox 9y ago

Yeah autopilot is similar in airplanes to what autopilot is on Teslas. Not sure what else you could call it without it also being confusing. Autopilot is a tool to stay in your lane and prevent common scenarios like keeping speed, avoiding obstacles and keeping distance, though there are still possible edge cases like this one appeared to be that can be more dangerous than not using it as the systems are not fully autonomous. Even with airplanes, if something gets in the way, autopilot won't always save you and can only alert you when the situation gets bad i.e. oncoming airplane or obstacle, altitude, speed etc. We fly in planes with autopilot and we are safer for it, but pilots/drivers still need to be alert and operating the plane. Teslas aren't fully autonomous and probably can't truly be until everything is connected and more cars on the road are autonomous for expected behavior. I trust autopilot in planes but still want a pilot. Most likely autopilot will be more useful in large buses, trucks, shipping, boats, airliners than individuals as you will still need a driver most of the time. Even the Uber crash could have possibly been avoided with a more alert driver. One area that may cause more crashes in the interim is trusting the software too much, autopilot that does work six sigma 99.999999% of the time may lead to a possible issue of driver comfort with the technology that may still have edge cases that can endanger them. This issue was a factor in the Tesla crash and the Uber crash I think a huge overlooked part of the failure here was the previous accidents at this part of the road and the lack of repair. We have a serious infrastructure issue with disrepair, non automated/untracked driving of humans probably ends up badly in these areas but goes unnoticed or is suppressed as road design can be a big factor, this automated crash highlighted an issue here at this offramp/fork that probably would go unnoticed and cause more issues. If nothing else, automated driving will have the data to fix these bad areas of our infrastructure and double down on safety and protections.