“This is a demo or test using a security driver – this is not [autonomous vehicle] Deployment,” said Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina, who studied self-driving cars. “Tesla splashed out in a small pool and everyone was asking where to place it in an Olympic swimming competition. ”
Foam and sensors
Tesla has been silent on many details of its technology. And it’s hard to draw clear conclusions about their technology from social media posts uploaded by riders. But some of these posts seem to show smoother rides. In one video, the robot trying to make a left turn appears to cross the double yellow line and enter oncoming traffic. In another case, the robot obviously cannot detect that the UPS truck stops and reverses, while the front seat safety monitor must intervene to stop the car.
A YouTuber uploaded a video showing a robot “Phantom Brake” (stopped for no reason for obvious reasons), a phenomenon that was also marked by hundreds of Tesla users as Tesla’s weaker full autonomous driving (supervision) capabilities, and was investigated by the federal government. Unlike actual autonomous driving technology, complete autonomous driving (supervision) requires users to turn their attention to the road.
According to Tesla’s website, the service has suspended severe weather. A Youtuber stopped due to a heavy rain. The robot throws the rider in Austin Park when the wind starts to whip around them. A few minutes later, according to the video, the same robot picked the creator and continued to ride. However, contradicting the above, a poster reported that the car was “flawless” in heavy rain.
Experts say the early bubble was not surprising. Fully autonomous driving (supervision) requires human drivers to intervene when needed, and Robotaxi now seems to be the same, said Philip Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies the safety of self-driving cars. He said the slips and falls made by robots are no different from what human drivers do on the road. But the value-added addition of autonomy should be safe, so it makes sense that these videos, as well as the “rough edges” of technology, make people nervous.
Camera mud
The launch reopened a public debate on the core tenet of Tesla’s technology: using the camera alone can use it to sense and “make decisions” while driving. Musk and his company have long believed that AI supplemented by data collected by cameras is enough to operate a safe, driverless car. The CEO has promised that all cars can become autonomous without any modifications and simply push for updated software (although Tesla also quietly rejects that claim). Other companies see more expensive sensors including radar and lidar as important validators and support. (LiDar’s price has dropped sharply; many Chinese automakers now include sensors for every car they sell.)
Advances in large language models have led some in the automotive industry to convince Musk’s approach to the right one. Kyle Vogt, former CEO of General Motors AV Unit Cruise, noted in a podcast interview this week that images from cameras installed on multiple vehicles plus advanced models can be “very accurate.” (Vogt exited Cruise after one of its driverless cars hit and dragged pedestrians. The company’s regulators about the incident were opaque, which was later discovered).
For Cummings, Austin’s report confirms her belief that cameras alone are not enough to operate cars automatically. “It’s crucial that there is security without a robot system – meaning people will die [using it]”I used to have had success with the fatigue of a single sensor. It’s unclear why Tesla thinks they can do things they’ve never done before,” she said.
One metric that might reveal Tesla’s internal success: how fast it scales. Musk boldly stated in May that Tesla will own thousands of self-driving cars on the road next year. The company seems to have motivation. According to the job posting, Tesla is hiring other vehicle operators whose salaries are for driving Austin to collect data. But, of course, Musk is no stranger to the deadline.
