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posted by martyb on Tuesday September 13 2016, @12:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the taking-another-look dept.

Tesla's Autopilot software is being upgraded to version 8.0, which will increase reliance on radar data:

The update focuses primarily on the radar component of the Autopilot sensor system, turning it from a supplementary part of the overall tech, designed to complement the cameras, into a primary control sensor that, according to Elon Musk himself, should prevent accidents like the one that resulted in Josh Brown's death.

"We're making much more effective use of radar," Musk explained on a press call regarding the updates. "We weren't confident that we could resolve false positives where the radar would think that it should brake, but it shouldn't."

But after getting upgraded components from Tesla's suppliers, they found they could combine that with their real-time fleet learning system and almost entirely eliminate false positives. That means radar alone can initiate a braking event, rather than requiring the camera component to also provide a positive image recognition result of a potential object.

Musk said that the new system should detect "any thing that's metallic, anything that's large and dense," and then brake the vehicle, "as long as it's not large and fluffy." If Autopilot is active, the system will be better able to predict the car's path and then produce a gradual brake that Musk said should be "much more comfortable" and able to "brake entirely" in most cases, but even if Autosteer is not engaged, it should also result in a emergency brake that will "mitigate" rather than completely avoid collisions in most cases.

The update comes with release notes.

Ars Technica's coverage of this upgrade points out a shortcoming:

Musk spoke about the kinds of targets the radar could detect, including "an alien spaceship" or "truck turning across the road," the latter a reference to the fatal Model S crash earlier this year that has seen much scrutiny focused on Tesla's Autopilot system. However Musk said that "large and fluffy" objects could be more of a problem; large moose should be detected but small deer, he told us, wouldn't. While this sounds trivial, there are more than 1,000,000 moose, deer, and elk strikes by cars in North America each year.


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  • (Score: 1) by Francis on Tuesday September 13 2016, @06:07PM

    by Francis (5544) on Tuesday September 13 2016, @06:07PM (#401423)

    Have you seen the motor on a motorcycle? They're tiny and often times insufficient to signal the light to turn.

  • (Score: 2) by schad on Tuesday September 13 2016, @07:23PM

    by schad (2398) on Tuesday September 13 2016, @07:23PM (#401449)

    What do induction loops have to do with radar?

    • (Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Wednesday September 14 2016, @07:00AM

      by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Wednesday September 14 2016, @07:00AM (#401682)

      The mirrors would probably produce a nice radar return.

      They are even supposed to be pointed in the general direction of traffic behind.

      (Got caught in a photo-radar trap that way -- the passenger mirror was very close to the center-point of the image; and it was angled to see the parked vehicle)

    • (Score: 1) by Francis on Wednesday September 14 2016, @05:47PM

      by Francis (5544) on Wednesday September 14 2016, @05:47PM (#401928)

      The point I was making is that motorcycles don't have a lot of metal to them, and they're shaped in a way that doesn't reflect as much back at the vehicles behind them. And when you combine that with the fact that motorcycles don't travel along the lane the same way that a car would, I'd be very much concerned about how well these systems do at figuring out how to deal with motorcyclists.

      But, OTOH, a properly running system would be safer for motorcyclists and bicyclists as they'd be less likely to be sideswiped and a system like this doesn't need to know about the brake lights to stop.