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People drive highly modified cars all the time, and we're not too concerned about it. Certainly I wouldn't trust this autopilot to be foolproof, but that's tru

People drive highly modified cars all the time, and we're not too concerned about it. Certainly I wouldn't trust this autopilot to be foolproof, but that's true of the factory version as well!

alexanderwept 8y ago
Yeah but most people modify their cars in a way that demands more attention while driving and reap the rewards of modification when they're paying attention to the car. There are some people who modify their cars so driving demands less attention, but hereunto that was never technology that gave software the authority to control how a car cooperates with other cars. The broomstick on the throttle "cruise control" isn't meaningfully comparable to hacked autopilot at the helm. Sure, if the driver is paying attention there's nothing to worry about. But this system is dangerous because it may lull a driver into a dangerous complacency.
sschueller 8y ago
It's also illegal in most states and especially in Europe. Don't expect your insurance to pay if your car causes an accident and/or kills someone.
- gambiting 8y ago
  I think you are getting downvoted because you are just wrong - it's not illegal, but you have to tell your insurer about it, as long as they approve it it's absolutely fine to drive. Some modifications(engine swaps for example) require the car to be re-certified by the official authority, but it's not an impossible process, just takes a few weeks and some money.
  - sschueller 8y ago
    Since when is installing a straight pipe legal? This is an extremely common modification. By doing so you are putting out toxic chemicals because you removed the muffler, this is not legal in states where an emissions test is done.
    - gambiting 8y ago
      It is legal if you get it re-certified - you car will most likely receive a different tax band because emissions will go up(or be refused certification if it goes over allowed limits). I think there's some misunderstanding here - even in the super-strict-and-bad EU you can build a car in your shed and get it registered and drive it. But you can't build/modify your car to be against regulations, be it emissions/noise/pollution or whatever else. As long as it's within the allowed parameters, then knock yourself out - there's a thriving modding scene even in countries with insane regulations like Germany.
    - kurtisc 8y ago
      That's a non-sequitur. One modification not being legal in your jurisdiction means nothing for other modifications. If you want to get more than a few thousand miles out of a car, you'd better be willing to modify safety-critical parts of it by replacing the brake pads and tyres - plenty of people do that themselves.
leoedin 8y ago
The difference is that a highly mechanically modified car is a fairly understandable system. I write embedded firmware for robots for a living. I've got a fairly good grasp of the complexities of a system like this. These modifications terrify me. How does he know that one system isn't talking the n-1 protocol which is incompatible in subtle and weird ways from the current one? How does he know that there isn't calibration data hiding inside one of the systems he installed which assumes a different dynamic response? Systems engineering for a system of this complexity is really really complicated. Bugs develop in the interactions between systems even when every part is working fine. If you start glueing stuff together which isn't designed to work together and is relying on unpublished unversioned APIs for communication, you're going to get all sorts of problems.

People drive highly modified cars all the time, and we're not too concerned about it. Certainly I wouldn't trust this autopilot to be foolproof, but that's true of the factory version as well!

alexanderwept 8y ago

Yeah but most people modify their cars in a way that demands more attention while driving and reap the rewards of modification when they're paying attention to the car. There are some people who modify their cars so driving demands less attention, but hereunto that was never technology that gave software the authority to control how a car cooperates with other cars. The broomstick on the throttle "cruise control" isn't meaningfully comparable to hacked autopilot at the helm. Sure, if the driver is paying attention there's nothing to worry about. But this system is dangerous because it may lull a driver into a dangerous complacency.

sschueller 8y ago

It's also illegal in most states and especially in Europe. Don't expect your insurance to pay if your car causes an accident and/or kills someone.

gambiting 8y ago
I think you are getting downvoted because you are just wrong - it's not illegal, but you have to tell your insurer about it, as long as they approve it it's absolutely fine to drive. Some modifications(engine swaps for example) require the car to be re-certified by the official authority, but it's not an impossible process, just takes a few weeks and some money.
- sschueller 8y ago
  Since when is installing a straight pipe legal? This is an extremely common modification. By doing so you are putting out toxic chemicals because you removed the muffler, this is not legal in states where an emissions test is done.
  - gambiting 8y ago
    It is legal if you get it re-certified - you car will most likely receive a different tax band because emissions will go up(or be refused certification if it goes over allowed limits). I think there's some misunderstanding here - even in the super-strict-and-bad EU you can build a car in your shed and get it registered and drive it. But you can't build/modify your car to be against regulations, be it emissions/noise/pollution or whatever else. As long as it's within the allowed parameters, then knock yourself out - there's a thriving modding scene even in countries with insane regulations like Germany.
  - kurtisc 8y ago
    That's a non-sequitur. One modification not being legal in your jurisdiction means nothing for other modifications. If you want to get more than a few thousand miles out of a car, you'd better be willing to modify safety-critical parts of it by replacing the brake pads and tyres - plenty of people do that themselves.

leoedin 8y ago

The difference is that a highly mechanically modified car is a fairly understandable system. I write embedded firmware for robots for a living. I've got a fairly good grasp of the complexities of a system like this. These modifications terrify me. How does he know that one system isn't talking the n-1 protocol which is incompatible in subtle and weird ways from the current one? How does he know that there isn't calibration data hiding inside one of the systems he installed which assumes a different dynamic response? Systems engineering for a system of this complexity is really really complicated. Bugs develop in the interactions between systems even when every part is working fine. If you start glueing stuff together which isn't designed to work together and is relying on unpublished unversioned APIs for communication, you're going to get all sorts of problems.