ThatAverageRunner wrote:
What? How is this bad for self driving cars? The idiot driver ignored warnings that the car was giving him to PUT HIS HANDS BACK ON THE WHEEL. He did not oblige, and he hit a barrier because of it. And the reason he hit a barrier? Because he damaged sensors in the car from a prior accident he had gotten into. It sounds like he should not have been driving any vehicle at any point at all.
These self driving cars are way less prone to accidents that your average person, and 9 times out of 10, the accident in these scenarios is caused by an outside party, not the self driving car.
If you read Tesla's statement carefully, the car was NOT warning him to put his hands back on the wheel at the time of the crash. The warning had occurred earlier during the drive, but not immediately leading to the crash. Tesla's wording in the statement seems deliberately meant to be interpreted wrong, like the way that you took it. It says he had his hands off the wheel for the 6 seconds prior to the crash, which is probably not enough time to get the warning again.
The Tesla didn't see the concrete divider for some reason, and drove directly into it without slowing. The driver's family said that the driver had complained to a Tesla dealer that the car was wanting to drive itself into that very same barrier 7-10 times on earlier trips. Tesla says it hadn't found that complaint registered at the dealer, but maybe they need interview people at the dealer to see what they remember. The driver was clearly foolish to continue to use Autopilot on that portion of his commute. If it were me, I'd never use it again at all if it once tried to drive me into something solid.
Tesla's system is not full self driving, though they claim then when it's fully developed, they'll be able to turn it on in current cars with current systems. I have real doubts about that, since they don't have lidar.
Driver assisted steering that can't do it all, and gets confused at on/off ramps, merges, construction zones, curvy road, etc. are sketchy in my opinion. They can only decrease reaction time and increase distraction, yet the driver is supposed to the completely responsible in the event of an accident.
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2018/03/29/tesla-autopilot-huang-family.html