[Dprglist] Tesla

[Randy Carter]

Sorry I sent this reply to the wrong person the first time. Automation is great when everything is known or controlled.  But there are to many jokers on the road who got their license from a box of Cracker Jacks.  To compound that, there is not enough law enforcement to nail said jokers every time they commit an infarction.  So the jokers get away with being terrible drivers for an extended period of time, it becomes normal driving habits. Trusting your life to a machine that can't see everything is fool hardy.  A white truck against a nearly white background with bad lighting conditions might get missed.  So a Tesla driver watching "Harry Potter" instead of the road might plow under the truck that has disappeared form the autopilot's field of view.  And yes, he is dead with the top half of his car sheared off! ----------------------------------------------------
"What the detractors and critics of electric vehicles have been saying foryears, is true. The electric vehicle is not for everybody, given the limitedrange it can only meet the needs of 90% of the population."

Ed Begley Jr.
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---------- Original Message ----------
From: David Anderson <davida at smu.edu>
To: DPRG <dprglist at dprg.org>
Subject: [Dprglist] Tesla
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2017 10:21:03 -0600


Dave Ackley sends along the following link.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/safety/feds-call-teslas-autopilot-safe/?utm_source=TandM&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_campaign=TM0124201
The key line, at least for me, is:
"It concluded the automatic emergency braking system (AEB) was not to blame because it hadn’t been designed for such a scenario."
So, that's how they're going to weasel out of it.   
Take hope!  Your robot's failure at the contest was not a failure at all.  It was simply not "designed for such a scenario" and therefore was actually a success!  
And that baby carriage the car ran over?  Not a problem.   Not designed for that scenario.   The fault is the driver's, for putting the car in that position.  Or perhaps for not purchasing the "baby carriage avoidance package."  
Anyway, all those millions of edge cases we were worried about turn out not to be a problem!   Or at least not Tesla's problem...
onward,
 dpa
 
 
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