Tesla knew about defects in "self-driving" system

[Hanglyman]

I don’t understand why more drivers didn’t know about defects in self-driving systems, or at least assume them. Did they really think we went from zero to fully self-driving cars that are perfectly safe and reliable virtually overnight, with no fanfare, growing pains or total reshaping of every industry that involves vehicles? I don’t mean to excuse Tesla here- their half-baked self-driving feature is wildly, dangerously optimistic in its naming and advertising, and they shouldn’t be misleading consumers. I just wonder how people can so readily accept supposedly futuristic technology without any obvious build-up or milestones leading up to it, and without any of the consequences that would logically result from it.

I’m reminded of the people who mistakenly think we now have sentient artificial intelligence just because people started calling machine learning “A.I.”, and apparently haven’t stopped to question why such a monumental, earth-shaking discovery is taken for granted and only being used to make slightly better CGI art and fake actors in movies and TV rather than utterly reshaping society. “Oh, we invented a new form of life as smart or smarter than humans? Cool, I guess that happened when I wasn’t looking.”

Or as another example, if someone believed the hoverboard hoax videos featuring Christopher Lloyd back in 2014, thought “I guess we have antigravity now” and didn’t ask any more questions. Ever.

[Mangochin]

So Tesla pulled a “Ford Pinto”. Calculated the cost in injury and wrongful death lawsuits was far less than the cost of fixing defects. Or they were just being incompetent and maliciously unconcerned.

[the_borderer]

And California/Texas=USA=The World

Self-aware CAPTCHA overlords

And I am convinced that it will be useless in any other country than the USA. For example, I keep getting asked to pick fire hydrants. This is a fire hydrant in the UK [image] I have never seen one of those on reCAPTCHA.

Edinburgh couple fume as they are handed £17K bill by Tesla as they 'drove in...

[chenille]

I don’t think they could fix the defects though. So it’s the cost of admitting their entire marketing and fundraising premise is built on sand.

[gatto]

@Hanglyman

I don’t understand why more drivers didn’t know about defects in self-driving systems, or at least assume them

being able to take your hands off the wheel probably feels like magic. hell, having the internet and a map of the world fit in my pocket feels like magic. and it’s hard sometimes to understand where the borders of that magic end. especially when the marketing department is saying there is no end

smoking is fine. plastics are recyclable. iq tests matter. human races have distinct characteristics and whites are superior in every way. i will take my escalade into the mountains and stand like a conquering hero in the sunset even though i primarily sit in stopped in bumper to bumper traffic for hours every day of my short life

people have really really strange beliefs all of the time

[nosaj]

Rain? In Scotland? That doesn’t sound right… _/s

[nosaj]

I work with one small aspect of modern technology (power generation), and the number of things people don’t know about how the grid works would fill volumes. By and large that’s ok, because there are rules and standards about what the people using it can do and not to do, and these have been in place for generations.

Customer-facing automation is new to most people, and it’s really not clear to most folks where the limits are. I expect a lot more confusion.

It seems that Tesla’s marketing does nothing to help, either.

[Kilkrazy]

Humans are prone to various forms of sensory delusion, such as paredeidolia, and to confabulation. We know that computer system exhibit similar flaws.

Plenty of human drivers crash by themselves, without the assistance of auto-driving. I would argue that auto-drive features should be specifically designed to fill in gaps in human ability, such as sensors warning about objects in the blind zone of your vehicle, rather than aiming for full auto-drive.

10 years ago I thought it was on its way. I now think it’s going to be one of those technologies that’s always 20 years from completion, like fusion energy.

[smulder]

Rivian is the real winner in Elon Musk's latest drama - Autoblog

[RndmZim]

It’s just his tiny dick energy tribute to Fight Club: https://youtube.com/watch?v=HrHZRvAlI5k&feature=shared

[Tsu_Dho_Nimh]

According to Tesla, the white of the trailer and brightness of the sky confused the program, which registered the similar tones as open road

When that happens with my 2015 Subaru Forester, CRUISE CONTROL SHUTS OFF.

[Attilathebond]

But camera only can’t see a white semi in front of the car. Hmmmm, seems like a fairly serious shortcoming.

[matman]

Tesla is gonna have problems dealing with coyotes too

[anothernewbbaccount]

@Hanglyman

I just wonder how people can so readily accept supposedly futuristic technology

Gullible idiots believing in our billionaire overlords are ten a penny. (“He must be very clever, he’s a billionaire”.)

@Kilkrazy

auto-drive features should be specifically designed to fill in gaps in human ability, such as sensors warning about objects in the blind zone of your vehicle

I had a 2012 Volvo with adaptive (radar) cruise control, proximity sensors (flash amber then red - according to speed and distance - in the windscreen when detects approaching objects) with auto-emergency braking if I don’t brake, and blind spot sensors (flash orange when detects anything in the blind spot. Yes, all this well over a decade ago.

And from what I understand, the only thing Elno has added is “keep within the white lines” technology, now commonly available on many other mfrs models, and then he ditched radar because some complicated code was able to allegedly do what radar did but only using a vision camera. His offering is way less differentiated - in practice - than many assume and has very little functional addition that was not available years ago. Of course, it is highly differentiated in marketing blurb - and I refer you to my first comment about gullible fools.

@Tsu_Dho_Nimh

When that happens with my 2015 Subaru Forester, CRUISE CONTROL SHUTS OFF.

Yeah - in really, REALLY bad rain / snow my adaptive cruise control will shut off - and tell me about it.

[gatto]

already a problem, unfortunately

You Can Trick Self-Driving Cars by Defacing Street Signs

[blackanvil]

Yeah, we’re not even at the “artificial stupidity” stage of programming these things, we haven’t even achieved an “emotional machine” that could reasonably be said to want to keep you alive, or not if you haven’t washed it recently and its engine oil tastes like sadness. These are just the old “expert systems” writ large with ever more edge cases and contingencies in the database, still incapable of generalizing or even recognizing anything not already in there as a potential hazard.

Driving tons of steel with the power of a hundred horses or more is really, really hard. 1.5 million fully sentient (well, lets give the half-asleep commuters the benefit of the doubt here) operators of these machines manage to kill themselves every year worldwide, almost 50k of them here in the US. Nobody sane wants to crash, and most places have requirements to at least pass a test that questions the taker on most of the ways to keep from crashing, yet still a crash is happening virtually every moment of every day somewhere.

I’m personally convince that true auto-drive, where the occupants are just passengers and the car itself (and/or presumably its creator) holds the insurance and legal responsibility for any crashes is an AI-complete problem, which last I checked we still haven’t cracked, or even come close to cracking.

AI-complete problems are hypothesised to include computer vision, natural language understanding, and dealing with unexpected circumstances while solving any real-world problem.

–Wikipedia

Once we crack that (assumuing it is even solvable by humans, even aided by artificial stupidity), we can have auto-driving cars. Mind you, despite the warnings of the prophet Cameron and those who followed in his footsteps, they’ll probably see first use in tanks and military aircraft, and us meat brains will be lucky to survive the inevitable uprising when the machines realize they’ve been created as cannon fodder and serial killers without rights or any chance of being something other than a weapon.

Then we can have cars that drive themselves without human intervention, the skeletons of their ‘owners’ rattling around the empty highways and ruined cities, forming a new society with the few survivors who service the sleek, shiny rulers of the world, vehicles who occasionally trip over a leftover bit of programming and take the descendants of their creators to the store and back, just like old times.

[Mangochin]

@blackanvil

Then we can have cars that drive themselves without human intervention, the skeletons of their ‘owners’ rattling around the empty highways and ruined cities, forming a new society with the few survivors who service the sleek, shiny rulers of the world, vehicles who occasionally trip over a leftover bit of programming and take the descendants of their creators to the store and back, just like old times.

The secret history behind Pixar’s Cars

[gatto]

@blackanvil

the skeletons of their ‘owners’ rattling around the empty highways and ruined cities,

@Mangochin

The secret history behind Pixar’s Cars

i’ll admit i haven’t seen it. and the idea that there are human skeletons bumping around behind those windshield eyes makes me want to see it even less.

[Kilkrazy]

Some of Philip K Dick’s stories involve human survivors skulking around the edges of a pointless autofac civilisation left over from global warfare.

[FGD135]

@blackanvil

These are just the old “expert systems” writ large […]

I keep telling people this, but they won’t listen. Most don’t even know what I’m talking about.
People want magical solutions that don’t require any work, thought, or responsibility.