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3rd times a regress - Tesla autopilot once again driving itself into walls

rcmaehl
By rcmaehl
in Tech News
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Posted

Sources:
Arstechnica

Reddit Thread

 

Summary:

Tesla AutoPilot is once again trying to drive itself into barriers after the fix was reverted yet again in a March update (2019.5.15).

 

Quotes/Excerpts:

Quote

Last year, [a] Tesla driver noticed that Autopilot on his Model X would sometimes pull to the left as the car approached the lane divider, treating the space between the diverging lanes as a lane of its own. Just days earlier, Tesla owner Walter Huang had died in a fiery crash after Autopilot steered his Model X into a concrete lane divider in a very similar junction. Beastpilot made several attempts to notify Tesla, he never got a response. Weeks later, Tesla pushed out an update that seemed to fix the problem. Then in October, it happened again. After months of working correctly. Weeks later, the problem resolved itself. This week, Dashcam footage showing the same thing happening a third time, this time with a recently acquired Model 3. After working correctly for months, his new Tesla shows a tendency to swerve toward the lane divider as it passes this particular exit. "The behavior of the system changes dramatically between software updates," "Human nature is, 'if something's worked 100 times before, it's gonna work the 101st time,'" Beastpilot's experience suggests one possible explanation: [Huang]'s car's behavior may have changed over time with successive software updates. Maybe after Huang raised his initial concerns, Tesla pushed out a software update fixing the problem, only to have the problem reappear with a later update. Not every Tesla user is likely to experience the bug Beastpilot identified. Tesla rolls out different versions of Autopilot to different people, with some experimental versions only going out to a small fraction of users. Tesla's position has long been that Autopilot is merely a driver assistance system, not a technology for full autonomy. Drivers are expected to keep their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road at all times. If drivers are paying attention, Autopilot defects shouldn't lead to crashes.

 

My Thoughts:
I agree with a few of the users within the Reddit thread. While Tesla should ignore stationary objects on the expressway, stationary objects in the way of the vehicle on the expressway are another matter and shouldn't just be handle as "Is this a car?" by the system. Thankfully this is patched, but I would not be surprised if it reverts again.

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Posted
11 minutes ago, rcmaehl said:

Thankfully this is patched

Until it needs to be patched.... Again ?

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Posted

I see the video here

and I don't understand what i'm looking at. What is suppose to happen? What is wrong? What are those weird barriers?

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Just now, poochyena said:

I see the video here

-snip-

and I don't understand what i'm looking at. What is suppose to happen? What is wrong? What are those weird barriers?

The car is supposed to keep to the right (with the curve of the road), but it keeps trying to pull left. You can tell because the wheel keeps being jerked to the right.

 

What exactly that turn is, I'm not sure. Possibly a lane specifically for Department of Transportation vehicles? IDK, the important part is the car trying to swerve into the median

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  • Author
13 minutes ago, poochyena said:

What are those weird barriers?

 

10 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

What exactly that turn is, I'm not sure. Possibly a lane specifically for Department of Transportation vehicles? IDK, the important part is the car trying to swerve into the median

Reversible express lane or "managed lane". I think Cincinnati has some. It's a couple lanes in the middle of the expressway that don't exit except every 10 miles or so and have a higher speed limit

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2 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

The car is supposed to keep to the right (with the curve of the road), but it keeps trying to pull left. You can tell because the wheel keeps being jerked to the right.

 

What exactly that turn is, I'm not sure. Possibly a lane specifically for Department of Transportation vehicles? IDK, the important part is the car trying to swerve into the median

Ah, ok, I understand now. Those barrier signs are unusual so I guess I could see why it has the problem.

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12 minutes ago, poochyena said:

and I don't understand what i'm looking at. What is suppose to happen? What is wrong? What are those weird barriers?

It looks like the offramp of a bidirectional HOV lane in the middle of the highway. The lane goes one way in the morning and the opposite direction in the evening (to account for rush hour) so the barriers along the left are closed to prevent you running into the wrong way. Northern Virginia/DC has some on I-95.

 

I think the video is showing in the third try, that the autopilot makes an attempt to correct to the left into the barrier when the offramp starts, which gets jerked back manually by the driver.

 

EDIT: Beaten to the punch. ?

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Quote

Drivers are expected to keep their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road at all times. If drivers are paying attention, Autopilot defects shouldn't lead to crashes.

hmmm... yeah I seriously doubt most people will pay attention if they are allowed to hand off driving to the computer.

 

 

 

Just a personal opinion... I don't understand the fascination with drivers passing off control... I once drove a rental car with adaptive cruise control and some sort of lane assistance steering control... I couldn't turn that crap off fast enough.

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38 minutes ago, Razor Blade said:

Just a personal opinion... I don't understand the fascination with drivers passing off control... I once drove a rental car with adaptive cruise control and some sort of lane assistance steering control... I couldn't turn that crap off fast enough.

Honestly, I agree. The idea of going down the highway at 80mph (which was the posted limit btw) and literally not controlling the car just didn't sit right with me. I turned it off and just drove normally for the whole trip. I felt more comfortable that way. Plus we for sure would have crashed because a tractor trailer hit a deer and a car behind him stopped short to avoid crashing into him. So I quickly ducked into the left lane (thankfully it was open) and got out fine. I don't think the car could have avoided that, hell I wouldn't even trust the Tesla to do that.

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This is the result of a few really frightening trends intersecting:

 

1. Tesla deceptively advertising the capabilities of autopilot. It is literally just steering assist with an auto-braking function if the car in front of you stops, and if you value your life or property you MUST have your hands on the wheel at all times, and be prepared to save yourself at a moment's notice.

 

2. Tesla treating autopilot software like they would a startup app. You can't just say "whoops, found a bug, it'll go in on the next patch". Someone else might find the bug first, and die because of it.

 

3. Tesla aggressively trying to suppress news of the failures of autopilot in an effort to save their reputation and stock price. When crashes and such happen, and there is NOT dashcam footage like this person has, Tesla has repeatedly refused to give any sort of records or logs of the incident, and instead just made a public statement saying "It must have been user error, our tech is perfect". The biggest case that comes to mind is in January 2018, when there were THREE SEPARATE CASES of Teslas randomly shooting full speed ahead in parking lots. "Afterward, the drivers said they were told by Tesla that they had mistakenly floored the accelerator pedal."

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Posted

This is one of reasons why I have trust issues with auto pilots in cars...

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I appreciate the features like lane departure warning, attention monitoring or assisted braking/brake warning, because they help us in situations where we might be distracted just that moment. For the rest I only trust myself and if I cock it up it'll be my fault. Who will be to blame when car crashes itself and kills someone else? Am I responsible, will insurance be covering that or will car company take the blame?

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I hope the problems with autopilots are fixed in a few years when I purchase my first car.

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16 hours ago, Razor Blade said:

hmmm... yeah I seriously doubt most people will pay attention if they are allowed to hand off driving to the computer.

 

 

 

Just a personal opinion... I don't understand the fascination with drivers passing off control... I once drove a rental car with adaptive cruise control and some sort of lane assistance steering control... I couldn't turn that crap off fast enough.

It's the way of operation. If helper features are addition to our own primary driving, we naturally stay alert. If all is done by itself and we're suppose to keep it in check by still monitoring traffic and driving, that will NEVER fly because once something is done automatically entirely, people don't keep an eye on it anymore.

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You can't compare subway with single rail to go back and forth to a car with bunch of other participants in traffic, multiple crossroads, pedestrians, unusual detours or side streets, stops and starts etc.

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On 3/22/2019 at 3:13 PM, rcmaehl said:

 

Reversible express lane or "managed lane". I think Cincinnati has some. It's a couple lanes in the middle of the expressway that don't exit except every 10 miles or so and have a higher speed limit

Yes, Northern VA has one as well. Used as HOV and express lane. Changes direction based on time of day (used to assist rush hour)

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