6 ms·

'Self driving' Tesla fails miserably on the streets of South Boston

40 points by ilamont 5y ago

krupan 5y ago
This is sad because there are self driving cars (Waymo, Cruise) that are doing so much better than this, but probably are having their reputation unfairly associated with and tarnished by this
lgvln 5y ago
I think this is a much needed wake up call for the general public on the “promises” of self-driving vehicles. We also need more data on the capabilities and limitations of all sorts of self-driving or assisted vehicle modes. Based on the anecdotal evidence, most of seem to be as unhelpful as helpful… ie emergency braking when you don’t need it, assisted-steering that either fails completely or guides the car into the wrong lane
- bumby 5y ago
  The workarounds (err, I mean 'solutions') can create worse problems than they solve and it scares me as a former software safety person to see them. An example is the "action suppression" which is essentially a delay to prevent nuisance braking.
aeternum 5y ago
The guy runs Snow Bull Capital which must be short tesla. His tweets are non-stop anti-tesla propaganda.
- smt88 5y ago
  I have no financial stake in Tesla either way, but I think I could produce a similar Twitter feed. As a CEO of a major, publicly-traded company, Musk is a relatively unprecedented combination of arrogant, overrated, reckless, and dishonest. I am enraged by Tesla's disregard for other drivers, shoddy build quality, blatant lies (ex: FSD labeling and failure to deliver), and toxic online fanbase. I think it's very reasonable for other people to be too.
  - FDSGSG 5y ago
    >I am enraged by Tesla's disregard for other drivers, shoddy build quality, blatant lies (ex: FSD labeling and failure to deliver), and toxic online fanbase. I think it's very reasonable for other people to be too. Do you own a Tesla? Did you personally get scammed by them? If not, it's deeply unhealthy for you to be enraged by something that doesn't even directly involve you.
    - skinnymuch 5y ago
      I remember there being a montage of clips of Fox News and guests saying why are male Dems pretending to care about some female issue when they don’t even have daughters and are men.
      - smt88 5y ago
        I would like to think you're arguing in my favor, but it's unclear. If you are, I will just add to it by saying that it's normal and human for people in a society to care about other people and also about the health of the society. Elon Musk is setting a terrifying precedent as the (usually) richest man in the world who is also a childish troll, self-dealer, and proud flouter of safety regulations.
        skinnymuch 5y ago
        Yes I am in your favor. The joke for the montage I brought up was -- of course you can care about something you aren't personally invested in. Punch line being "if you have prostate cancer, the doctor won't say yeah but I don't so what do I care"
      - FDSGSG 5y ago
        That's completely different. "Enraged" is a strong word, you'd expect someone who is "enraged" to be extremely angry, turning red and almost throwing things around. It's not normal for a third party to get so upset over other peoples cars. Angry? Sure. Vexed? Why not. Annoyed? Absolutely. Enraged? Probably not. Incandescent? Nah.
- sahaj 5y ago
  You either have no experience with Tesla "FSD" or you are the shill and are deflecting.
trixie_ 5y ago
It is kind of funny how anti-Tesla HN is overall. Reminds me of when HN was anti-TypeScript for years and then suddenly flipped. This place is still very anti-Bitcoin as well. For a user base that should be ahead of the curve it seems to be often behind it in important technologies. Not sure why, maybe posts like this attract the critics to pile on. It’s like a lot of you can’t see progress happening in front of your faces.
- rsynnott 5y ago
  HN used to be terribly pro-Bitcoin; a decade or so of nothing-much presumably eroded it (though I think it's _still_ more Bitcoin-friendly than, say, a random sampling of the population).
- gamblor956 5y ago
  Coinbase and a number of other Bitcoin startups launched on HN. HN was very much pro-crypto for the first few years, until reality set it. HN used to be hugely pro-Tesla. You wouldn't go a day without seeing a pro-Tesla fluff piece. And that changed too, when reality set in and people realized that Tesla cars are poorly built compared to all of their domestic competitors, and after Musk repeatedly over-promised and under-delivered.
  - trixie_ 5y ago
    I guess you’ll be waiting a long time for reality to set in as Tesla’s sales haven’t shown any hint of slowing down. Underdelivering is a funny way to say there is too much demand to keep up.
    - gamblor956 5y ago
      I won't have to wait long at all. Tesla's sales in the U.S. and Europe have been slowing. Most of their growth is now in the Chinese market. Between the FSD problems, the joke that is Cybertruck, and Elon Musk, Tesla's been doing a great job of turning away potential customers who are now looking at anything but Tesla.
- 5y ago
marstall 5y ago
I work very near to this part of Southie and it's hardly Mumbai in terms of traffic chaos. Mostly residential. Not too many cars or pedestrians. A modern, rational street grid with parking regulations obsessively enforced. Lots of double-parked delivery trucks, I'll grant - but that's very common these days. And it looks like FSD struggles majorly with them.
james-redwood 5y ago
While somewhat unrelated, anecdotally, the road quality in Boston is terrible in comparison to big cities in South Africa or the UK. There’s a big disconnect in local management and the communities they serve.
- freediver 5y ago
  It is irrelevant from a standpoint of what level 5 autonomy promises. If a human can drive the street, autonomous vehicle should be able too. We all know that this is very hard.

40 points by ilamont 5y ago

This is sad because there are self driving cars (Waymo, Cruise) that are doing so much better than this, but probably are having their reputation unfairly associated with and tarnished by this

lgvln 5y ago

I think this is a much needed wake up call for the general public on the “promises” of self-driving vehicles. We also need more data on the capabilities and limitations of all sorts of self-driving or assisted vehicle modes. Based on the anecdotal evidence, most of seem to be as unhelpful as helpful… ie emergency braking when you don’t need it, assisted-steering that either fails completely or guides the car into the wrong lane

bumby 5y ago
The workarounds (err, I mean 'solutions') can create worse problems than they solve and it scares me as a former software safety person to see them. An example is the "action suppression" which is essentially a delay to prevent nuisance braking.

aeternum 5y ago

The guy runs Snow Bull Capital which must be short tesla. His tweets are non-stop anti-tesla propaganda.

smt88 5y ago
I have no financial stake in Tesla either way, but I think I could produce a similar Twitter feed. As a CEO of a major, publicly-traded company, Musk is a relatively unprecedented combination of arrogant, overrated, reckless, and dishonest. I am enraged by Tesla's disregard for other drivers, shoddy build quality, blatant lies (ex: FSD labeling and failure to deliver), and toxic online fanbase. I think it's very reasonable for other people to be too.
- FDSGSG 5y ago
  >I am enraged by Tesla's disregard for other drivers, shoddy build quality, blatant lies (ex: FSD labeling and failure to deliver), and toxic online fanbase. I think it's very reasonable for other people to be too. Do you own a Tesla? Did you personally get scammed by them? If not, it's deeply unhealthy for you to be enraged by something that doesn't even directly involve you.
  - skinnymuch 5y ago
    I remember there being a montage of clips of Fox News and guests saying why are male Dems pretending to care about some female issue when they don’t even have daughters and are men.
    - smt88 5y ago
      I would like to think you're arguing in my favor, but it's unclear. If you are, I will just add to it by saying that it's normal and human for people in a society to care about other people and also about the health of the society. Elon Musk is setting a terrifying precedent as the (usually) richest man in the world who is also a childish troll, self-dealer, and proud flouter of safety regulations.
      - skinnymuch 5y ago
        Yes I am in your favor. The joke for the montage I brought up was -- of course you can care about something you aren't personally invested in. Punch line being "if you have prostate cancer, the doctor won't say yeah but I don't so what do I care"
    - FDSGSG 5y ago
      That's completely different. "Enraged" is a strong word, you'd expect someone who is "enraged" to be extremely angry, turning red and almost throwing things around. It's not normal for a third party to get so upset over other peoples cars. Angry? Sure. Vexed? Why not. Annoyed? Absolutely. Enraged? Probably not. Incandescent? Nah.
sahaj 5y ago
You either have no experience with Tesla "FSD" or you are the shill and are deflecting.

trixie_ 5y ago

It is kind of funny how anti-Tesla HN is overall. Reminds me of when HN was anti-TypeScript for years and then suddenly flipped. This place is still very anti-Bitcoin as well. For a user base that should be ahead of the curve it seems to be often behind it in important technologies. Not sure why, maybe posts like this attract the critics to pile on. It’s like a lot of you can’t see progress happening in front of your faces.

rsynnott 5y ago
HN used to be terribly pro-Bitcoin; a decade or so of nothing-much presumably eroded it (though I think it's _still_ more Bitcoin-friendly than, say, a random sampling of the population).
gamblor956 5y ago
Coinbase and a number of other Bitcoin startups launched on HN. HN was very much pro-crypto for the first few years, until reality set it. HN used to be hugely pro-Tesla. You wouldn't go a day without seeing a pro-Tesla fluff piece. And that changed too, when reality set in and people realized that Tesla cars are poorly built compared to all of their domestic competitors, and after Musk repeatedly over-promised and under-delivered.
- trixie_ 5y ago
  I guess you’ll be waiting a long time for reality to set in as Tesla’s sales haven’t shown any hint of slowing down. Underdelivering is a funny way to say there is too much demand to keep up.
  - gamblor956 5y ago
    I won't have to wait long at all. Tesla's sales in the U.S. and Europe have been slowing. Most of their growth is now in the Chinese market. Between the FSD problems, the joke that is Cybertruck, and Elon Musk, Tesla's been doing a great job of turning away potential customers who are now looking at anything but Tesla.
5y ago

marstall 5y ago

I work very near to this part of Southie and it's hardly Mumbai in terms of traffic chaos. Mostly residential. Not too many cars or pedestrians. A modern, rational street grid with parking regulations obsessively enforced. Lots of double-parked delivery trucks, I'll grant - but that's very common these days. And it looks like FSD struggles majorly with them.

james-redwood 5y ago

While somewhat unrelated, anecdotally, the road quality in Boston is terrible in comparison to big cities in South Africa or the UK. There’s a big disconnect in local management and the communities they serve.

freediver 5y ago
It is irrelevant from a standpoint of what level 5 autonomy promises. If a human can drive the street, autonomous vehicle should be able too. We all know that this is very hard.