Tesla fatal crash under investigation over potential use of Autopilot and fire - Sensationalist Headlines

Fuck.

Yeah, it's pretty obvious it doesn't recognise the lane because there's no lane marker splitting off the hatched lines. But human drivers have been confused by the same thing as well. This is the same gore point that the Tesla hit: https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/28/san-jose-ntsb-blames-fatal-2016-greyhound-bus-crash-on-inadequate-road-markings/ https://i2.wp.com/www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/20160119_092332_buscrash3-2.jpg?w=810 SAN JOSE — Despite the presence of an admittedly fatigued driver and a rain-soaked Highway 101, federal investigators have concluded that inadequate road markings were to blame for a disastrous January 2016 Greyhound bus crash that killed two and injured over a dozen others. In a report presented Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board said the absence of reflective warning markers, preceding a gore point separating the carpool lane connector to Highway 85 from 101, made the bus driver think he was in the connector lane when he was actually heading straight into a concrete barrier. Agency officials contend the crash was preventable. “This crash did not have to happen because the barrier that the bus hit should have been visible, even in the bad weather, but it was not,’’ NTSB Acting Chairman T. Bella Dinh-Zarr said in a statement. “Moreover, the crash would probably have resulted in fewer deaths and injuries if the occupants had worn their seat belts.” The ensuing violent crash upended the bus and caused two women to be thrown from the vehicle as it barrel-rolled onto the roadway. The ejected passengers, Maria De Jesus Ortiz Velasquez, 75, of Salinas, and Fely Olivera, 51, of San Francisco, died almost immediately.

sounds like a pretty stupid flaw

It's just advanced cruise control. Eventually it will get better and do self driving but it's not self driving yet. It's not really a flaw, just a limitation of what's been done so far.

Wait hold on, same spot, was concluded that inadequate road markings were the cause of the crash; no reflective warning markers... And they did nothing to fix it?

When in doubt the system should apply FULL BREAKS no matter what If anyone behind you can't stop in time, they are too close.

"Co-Pilot"?

It will usually just throw back control to the driver.

Sure, but I argue that there is less of a chance of harm coming to everyone involved if a car which was switched into autonomous mode were to come to a deadstop rather than forfeit control and hope the driver solves the situation.

Well it's not an autonomous system, and while people aren't supposed to tailgate they do. I think it would probably cause a lot more accidents if Tesla's everywhere started slamming on the brakes whenever they lost sight of a lane marking because of weird lighting or whatever.

True but as a driver you are supposed to be attentive at the wheel anyways, so if the car thinks shit is going south and stops 'self-driving' + applies the breaks, you as the driver could intervene in a similar way to canceling cruise control.

I saw a video the other day that explained Tesla lost their partnership with Velodyne (or something like that) who were providing 1 of the 3 sensors Tesla used for their self driving tech, and they don't use LiDAR, so I believe they're only using 2 out of the preferable 4 sensors for their autopilot mode right now, which *really* isn't ideal.

iirc tesla severed that partnership (it wasn't with velodyne, but i can't remember who it was) on their end AP2.0 uses cameras/computer vision primarily, with radar for distance keeping and ultrasonic sensors for close in work (blind spots, lane changing)

Mobileye? They don't use LiDAR but they are trying to do it the "hard way" with vision, that won't require you to prescan areas. Not all the cameras on autopilot are active yet.

I saw a video by a guy on YouTube talking about how Tesla once used 3, which is perfectly acceptable, but I think they apparently lost their partnership with somebody and that this hampered them. This may be really out of date though and YouTube isn't exactly correct all the time.