"Autopilot Doesn't Really Drive, Dummy"

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

Tesla Driver Watching Movie While Using Autopilot Crashes Into Cop Car Because Autopilot Doesn't Really Drive, Dummy (jalopnik.com)


Some of you may recall how a week or so ago I had to defend myself from angry Tesla-stans regarding my statements about how Level 2 semi-automation—the level of autonomy where Tesla’s Autopilot operates—sucks. It sucks because the sort of vigilance tasks demanded of the not-really-driving driver are fundamentally incompatible with how humans behave. In case you need proof of this, just this morning fate provided us with one, as a guy watching a movie in his Tesla on Autopilot slammed into a cop car. Yep, a cop car. What a moron.

The accident happened early this morning, right here in my home state of North Carolina, on highway 64 West, outside the town of Nashville. The driver of the Tesla Model S, Devainder Goli of Raleigh, is, according to the Charlotte Observer,

“...accused of violating the move-over law and watching television while operating a vehicle, according to officials.”

The “move-over law” is about driving cautiously when passing emergency vehicles parked on the side of the road, like the Nash County Sheriff’s car was, and I think it’s also implied in that law not to slam into the car, either. The fact that the driver was watching a movie on his phone is covered by the slight archaic-sounding “watching television” violation.

All the information currently given about the crash states that the Tesla rammed into the back of the deputy’s vehicle, which then was pushed into a State Troopers car, also parked at the scene.

The Sheriff’s car and the Tesla were totaled, but thankfully there were no injuries. Based on the pictures shared from the NC Highway Patrol, it’s clear that the Sheriff’s car had its warning lights on, too.


So, for those of you who still think Tesla’s Autopilot is safer than a human driving, let’s look at the situation here: it seems this happened pre-dawn, so fairly dark out, but in clear weather and the Sheriff’s car had its normal and flashing blue and red police lights going, while parked on the side of the road.



Somehow Autopilot not only steered the car off the road, but directly into a parked police car with lights on. This is not the sort of mistake most human drivers would make. If the driver was using Autopilot properly—as in paying attention and not watching a fucking movie while he’s supposed to be driving—this would not have happened.

But there’s the problem: people simply aren’t good at delegating 80 or so percent of the task of driving to an automated system and then remaining vigilant to monitor that system. The temptation to let focus wander is real and powerful, and with everyone having pocket-sized distraction machines on them at all times, there’s plenty of temptation.



Yes, the driver was misusing Autopilot and was a fool. But the fundamental design of Autopilot allows this to happen, and is even deceptive enough in how it’s marketed to even enable this sort of abuse.

Level 2 semi-automation does not work well with humans. Even if it’s found this Model S was using an older version of autopilot or whatever, that doesn’t matter: semi-autonomous systems that demand immediate human input on demand will always have issues like this.


Time to rethink things, Tesla stans.

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[ChasingCoral]

Tesla Driver Watching Movie While Using Autopilot Crashes Into Cop Car Because Autopilot Doesn't Really Drive, Dummy (jalopnik.com)


Some of you may recall how a week or so ago I had to defend myself from angry Tesla-stans regarding my statements about how Level 2 semi-automation—the level of autonomy where Tesla’s Autopilot operates—sucks. It sucks because the sort of vigilance tasks demanded of the not-really-driving driver are fundamentally incompatible with how humans behave. In case you need proof of this, just this morning fate provided us with one, as a guy watching a movie in his Tesla on Autopilot slammed into a cop car. Yep, a cop car. What a moron.

The accident happened early this morning, right here in my home state of North Carolina, on highway 64 West, outside the town of Nashville. The driver of the Tesla Model S, Devainder Goli of Raleigh, is, according to the Charlotte Observer,



The “move-over law” is about driving cautiously when passing emergency vehicles parked on the side of the road, like the Nash County Sheriff’s car was, and I think it’s also implied in that law not to slam into the car, either. The fact that the driver was watching a movie on his phone is covered by the slight archaic-sounding “watching television” violation.

All the information currently given about the crash states that the Tesla rammed into the back of the deputy’s vehicle, which then was pushed into a State Troopers car, also parked at the scene.

The Sheriff’s car and the Tesla were totaled, but thankfully there were no injuries. Based on the pictures shared from the NC Highway Patrol, it’s clear that the Sheriff’s car had its warning lights on, too.


So, for those of you who still think Tesla’s Autopilot is safer than a human driving, let’s look at the situation here: it seems this happened pre-dawn, so fairly dark out, but in clear weather and the Sheriff’s car had its normal and flashing blue and red police lights going, while parked on the side of the road.



Somehow Autopilot not only steered the car off the road, but directly into a parked police car with lights on. This is not the sort of mistake most human drivers would make. If the driver was using Autopilot properly—as in paying attention and not watching a fucking movie while he’s supposed to be driving—this would not have happened.

But there’s the problem: people simply aren’t good at delegating 80 or so percent of the task of driving to an automated system and then remaining vigilant to monitor that system. The temptation to let focus wander is real and powerful, and with everyone having pocket-sized distraction machines on them at all times, there’s plenty of temptation.



Yes, the driver was misusing Autopilot and was a fool. But the fundamental design of Autopilot allows this to happen, and is even deceptive enough in how it’s marketed to even enable this sort of abuse.

Level 2 semi-automation does not work well with humans. Even if it’s found this Model S was using an older version of autopilot or whatever, that doesn’t matter: semi-autonomous systems that demand immediate human input on demand will always have issues like this.


Time to rethink things, Tesla stans.

This is why you really want to listen to the podcast in this post:
https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...cle-automation-robots-and-semi-autonomy.1290/

I listened to it Monday while driving in fully manual mode (ok, I used the ancient cruise control on my 2003 Tacoma). It really captures the problem of self-driving well and why Level 2 is anything but FULL-SELF-DRIVING!

 

[Yoliber]

Autopilot is misleading but I would prefer if Ford chose better less confusing names. 360 camera, CoPilot360, CoPilot360 Assist, CoPilot360 Assist+... that's too much.

SuperCruise and UltraCruise... now those are some pretty cool names.

 

[zhackwyatt]

Autopilot is misleading but I would prefer if Ford chose better less confusing names. 360 camera, CoPilot360, CoPilot360 Assist, CoPilot360 Assist+... that's too much.

SuperCruise and UltraCruise... now those are some pretty cool names.

I like CoPilot. Gives you the sense that its an aid and not in control like autopilot. The rest of the addon words are to describe the specific capabilities which I agree is hard to figure out.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

I used the ancient cruise control on my 2003 Tacoma

Wait! The Tacoma has cruise control? Who knew.

 

[Yoliber]

I like CoPilot. Gives you the sense that its an aid and not in control like autopilot. The rest of the addon words are to describe the specific capabilities which I agree is hard to figure out.

I like CoPilot too! my issue is with all the redundant names. It doesn't help me understand or easily remember the differences between the levels.

 

[Deleted member 367]

Tesla Driver Watching Movie While Using Autopilot Crashes Into Cop Car Because Autopilot Doesn't Really Drive, Dummy (jalopnik.com)


Some of you may recall how a week or so ago I had to defend myself from angry Tesla-stans regarding my statements about how Level 2 semi-automation—the level of autonomy where Tesla’s Autopilot operates—sucks. It sucks because the sort of vigilance tasks demanded of the not-really-driving driver are fundamentally incompatible with how humans behave. In case you need proof of this, just this morning fate provided us with one, as a guy watching a movie in his Tesla on Autopilot slammed into a cop car. Yep, a cop car. What a moron.

The accident happened early this morning, right here in my home state of North Carolina, on highway 64 West, outside the town of Nashville. The driver of the Tesla Model S, Devainder Goli of Raleigh, is, according to the Charlotte Observer,



The “move-over law” is about driving cautiously when passing emergency vehicles parked on the side of the road, like the Nash County Sheriff’s car was, and I think it’s also implied in that law not to slam into the car, either. The fact that the driver was watching a movie on his phone is covered by the slight archaic-sounding “watching television” violation.

All the information currently given about the crash states that the Tesla rammed into the back of the deputy’s vehicle, which then was pushed into a State Troopers car, also parked at the scene.

The Sheriff’s car and the Tesla were totaled, but thankfully there were no injuries. Based on the pictures shared from the NC Highway Patrol, it’s clear that the Sheriff’s car had its warning lights on, too.


So, for those of you who still think Tesla’s Autopilot is safer than a human driving, let’s look at the situation here: it seems this happened pre-dawn, so fairly dark out, but in clear weather and the Sheriff’s car had its normal and flashing blue and red police lights going, while parked on the side of the road.



Somehow Autopilot not only steered the car off the road, but directly into a parked police car with lights on. This is not the sort of mistake most human drivers would make. If the driver was using Autopilot properly—as in paying attention and not watching a fucking movie while he’s supposed to be driving—this would not have happened.

But there’s the problem: people simply aren’t good at delegating 80 or so percent of the task of driving to an automated system and then remaining vigilant to monitor that system. The temptation to let focus wander is real and powerful, and with everyone having pocket-sized distraction machines on them at all times, there’s plenty of temptation.



Yes, the driver was misusing Autopilot and was a fool. But the fundamental design of Autopilot allows this to happen, and is even deceptive enough in how it’s marketed to even enable this sort of abuse.

Level 2 semi-automation does not work well with humans. Even if it’s found this Model S was using an older version of autopilot or whatever, that doesn’t matter: semi-autonomous systems that demand immediate human input on demand will always have issues like this.


Time to rethink things, Tesla stans.

I agree with this report, and I own 2 Teslas! The lowest level of Auto Pilot provides speed control along with lane keeping and not crashing the car ahead of you. Very handy. That level of Auto Pilot works fine with very few if any miscues so far. However, the so called full Auto Pilot - the one you described above - scarred the hell out of me during the 30 day free trial, and I never installed it. Ironically, that Auto Pilot costs an extra $6000 I believe! Both Tesla cars are outstanding, but the so-called full Auto Pilot sucks!!

 

[macchiaz-o]

Thank you very much for posting this.

We need to constantly remind ourselves and others that THERE ARE NO VEHICLES WE CAN OWN TODAY THAT ARE SELF-DRIVING. I'm just trying to get us prepped for all the fancy cool ADAS included on every Mustang Mach-E. We need to be vigilant about being responsible, attentive drivers and not succumb to "autonowashing."

I absolutely adore Torchinsky's writing. He's fucking brilliant. (I won't normally speak like that on the forum, but @GoGoGadgetMachE copied the entire original article into here, and it's from Jalopnik, so...)

@ChasingCoral, you probably know this (?) but that podcast guest is the same person who authored this article.

 

[JamieGeek]

Does this mean we have to leave the passenger seat empty because when we turn it on:

 

[jhalkias]

I really enjoy Sandy Munro's YouTube videos. In this one he answers questions. One of the questions is about Tesla and Autopilot - I don't remember what timestamp in the video it was on, but he thinks Tesla is light years ahead of everyone else, is probably already at level 4, and will be the first ones to level 5. Obviously, he knows a lot more than me about this stuff, but I find that hard to fathom when we know that they do not deploy the Same type or amount of sensors in their cars. Anyway . . . interesting and worth the watch for this topic, and some other stuff.

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

but he thinks Tesla is light years ahead of everyone else, is probably already at level 4, and will be the first ones to level 5.

From https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15079828/autonomous-self-driving-car-levels-car-levels/:

Level 4 _ High Automation

System capability: The car can operate without human input or oversight but only under select conditions defined by factors such as road type or geographic area. • Driver involvement: In a shared car restricted to a defined area, there may not be any. But in a privately owned Level 4 car, the driver might manage all driving duties on surface streets then become a passenger as the car enters a highway. • Example: Google’s now-defunct Firefly pod-car prototype, which had neither pedals nor a steering wheel and was restricted to a top speed of 25 mph.

This story literally proves Tesla is not Level 4. On a well defined highway, with no immediate obstacles, the car went out of its way to drive into other cars on the side of the road.

 

[jhalkias]

I should clarify . . . he thinks Tesla has level 4 capability, and that is what they are going to release soon. Not that the current software out there is level 4. He also says that Tesla constantly lies to obfuscate where they are in development, and that they are actually much farther ahead than they ever publicly reveal.

 

[ClaudeMach-E]

The Mustang Mach-E will also have a driver watch system , so if the driver is not attentive to whats happening then the Co-Pilot system will give an alert sound and disingage, which Tesla's don't have but that lawmakers may required eventually.

 

[Raymondjram]

As an EE, I read and evaluate articles about autonomy in modern vehicles, and I know that as long as there are humans and unknown obstacles on public roads, we cannot trust the self-driving features completely. On private and special roads, the system can operate completey without human supervision.

Ford is presently testing autonomous valet parking with the garage specifically designed for that purpose. The driver parks the vehicle at one spot, vacates the vehicle of all occupants, and then the garage system works with the vehicle using V2I to guide and park it. Since there is no need to open a door, the vehicles are parked much closer, saving an average of 20% of space depending on the vehicle size and shape. The vehicle return is just as automated, where the garage system moves the vehicle to a delivery spot and the driver (and passengers) get in and take the vehicle out. The vehicle presently used for these test s the 2020 Escape. Read about it here: https://fordauthority.com/2020/08/autonomous-ford-escape-demo-vehicles-can-valet-park-themselves/

This system can be deployed on private property roads, and even in your own garage in the future. I see myself calling out my Mach-E and having it waiting for me with the A/C on. And after returning to my home, let it park itlsef in the garage, power off, and "refuel" itself with wireless chaging (either overhead or on the floor) getting ready for the next day I will need it.

But for public roads, we still need to sit in the driver's seat for now.

 

[jhalkias]

Well . . . I'm not waiting outside of my heated garage in an Ohio winter while I wait for the Mach E to pull out for me. I'll just get in in my nice warm garage before heading out thank you.

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