Uh oh, another Tesla autopilot crash fatality

[Xist]

Is anyone familiar with the Nissan Murano's Predictive Forward Collision Warning system? It is supposed to scan traffic ahead of the vehicle in front of you.

I have always wanted radar.

I just figured it would help both human and robot overlords predict sudden stops.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

When you find a coroner that lists global warming, or over-population as a cause of death, I'll put your tin hat on.

Maybe because coroners list only the immediate cause, not the cause of the cause. If people die from a heat wave, they list heat stroke, not considering that the heat wave was caused by global warming. If some nutcase runs over 50 people with a truck, the cause of death is listed as blunt force trauma, not considering that the nut couldn't have run over that many people if they weren't crowded together in an urban area.

Working from sun up until sun down, people could usually produce just a little more than they needed.

Whereas nowadays lots of people work in a cubicle from sunup to well past sundown, barely keeping up (if that) with their credit card interest :-)

Also, the idea that pre-mechanized farmers worked sunup to sundown all of the year is just wrong. You work hard during planting and harvest, other times there's not a lot to do.

Communication has connected all corners of the earth, so we are cooperating at an unprecedented level...

Yeah, so the jihadists can cooperate to launch attacks worldwide, instead of being limited by how far horses &c can travel :-)

But all this is rather beside the point. After all, if you inherit wealth, you can have a high old time spending it without working, until it runs out. Indeed - to get back to the subject - you could draw a pretty good analogy to that Tesla occupant (not driver, 'cause he wasn't), who probably thought everything was going just great, until suddenly it wasn't :-)

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Xist

It is supposed to scan traffic ahead of the vehicle in front of you.

Real useful to those of us who do much of our driving in places where "in front" is often a mile or more :-) And I've enough experince of heavily trafficed areas to expect that most people would just use it as an excuse to tailgate even closer to the vehicle ahead, thus negating any advantage.

I have always wanted radar.

It'd be neat to have a radar display for fog & snow, and infrared for deer & other critters.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

It'd be neat to have a radar display for fog & snow, and infrared for deer & other critters.

(Emphasis mine)

Have I mentioned hitting an elk? It was a life-changing experience.

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by Xist

(Emphasis mine)

Have I mentioned hitting an elk? It was a life-changing experience.

I took took a Roosevelt herd bull in Redwood NP at 60 mph in a Chevy Corsica. Barely had time to hit the brakes, ranger said it was one of their biggest. It didn't deploy the airbags because it laid it flat on the hood and then crushed the roof down on us. We couldn't open the front doors, had to climb out the back. The elk flipped all the way over the car and actually got up an walked off but died at the bottom of the bank. Luckily I just cut up my knuckles and nothing more. The elk was in a flat out run crossing the 4 lane section of highway 101 and it was about 1 am with an oncoming car's headlights in my face. If I didn't hit it, they would have, and it's probably luck we didn't end up losing control and going head on into them. That car had about 2000 miles on it and they actually fixed it for about $11,000 rather then totaling it out. That was back in 1995. It was a GSA fleet car, I pity the sap that bought it at the auction not knowing the history.

[RedDevil]

Tesla mulling two theories to explain 'Autopilot' crash: source | Reuters

Tesla is considering whether the radar and camera input for the vehicle’s automatic emergency braking system failed to detect the truck trailer or the automatic braking system’s radar may have detected the trailer but discounted this input as part of a design to "tune out" structures such as bridges to avoid triggering false braking[.]
...
Musk wrote in a June 30 tweet that "radar tunes out what looks like an overhead road sign to avoid false braking events."

Tesla said in a June blog post that "neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor-trailer against a brightly lit sky."
...
The source said Tesla also told committee staffers it views braking failure as separate and distinct from its "Autopilot” function, which manages steering, changing lanes, and adjusting travel speed.
...
The report said the NTSB confirmed the Model S driver was using the advanced driver assistance features Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer lane-keeping assistance at the time. The NTSB has not yet determined the probable cause of the crash.

So it may have been caused by overhead road sign blanking... and Tesla says it wasn't AutoPilot but BrakeAssist that got it wrong.

Even so, without AutoPilot nobody would dare watch a movie trusting just BrakeAssist would keep them safe.

[Xist]

Was everyone else okay? I am glad you were not seriously injured!

[Xist]

Autopilot should have steered around the semi.

[redpoint5]

It would be difficult to program autopilot to break traffic rules to avoid an accident. Swerving into an open but oncoming lane of traffic is something humans think of easily, but autopilot might not allow it due to liability. Machines are best at quickly solving the usual case problems, but when creativity is required for a solution, it's human CPU FTW... for now.

[jamesqf]

...Tesla also told committee staffers it views braking failure as separate and distinct from its "Autopilot” function...

Tesla may view things this way, and maybe they are implemented as separate & distinct pieces of software, but are the people buying the cars with Autopilot making this distinction? Indeed, is the distinction even relevant to anyone but the engineers working on the system(s)?