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Two Soylentils wrote in with news of a fatal accident involving a Tesla vehicle. Please note that the feature in use, called "Autopilot" is not the same as an autonomous vehicle. It provides lane-keeping, cruise control, and safe-distance monitoring, but the driver is expected to be alert and in control at all times. -Ed.
Man Killed in Crash of 'Self-Driving' Car
Tech Insider reports that an Ohio man was killed on 7 May when his Tesla Model S, with its autopilot feature turned on, went under a tractor-trailer.
Further information:
- Tesla Motors blog
- NHTSA report
- video uploaded by the victim, demonstrating use of the autopilot feature
Tesla Autopilot - Fatal Accident
Accident is reported to have happened in May, and reported to NHTSA/DOT immediately by Tesla. But not public until the end of June -- something a bit fishy about this reporting lag.
On the other hand, the accident is described as one that might have also been difficult for an alert human to have avoided:
The May crash occurred when a tractor trailer drove across a divided highway, where a Tesla in autopilot mode was driving. The Model S passed under the tractor trailer, and the bottom of the trailer hit the Tesla vehicle's windshield.
"Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied," Tesla wrote.
This was the first reporting found--by the time it makes the SN front page there may be more details. Because this is a "first" it seems likely that a detailed investigation and accident reconstruction will be performed.
(Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Friday July 01 2016, @02:03AM
Most non-camera operated forward collision avoidance systems would have detected this.
Some companies (Subaru) have standardized on cameras to the exclusion of all other sensors. These are no good in fog, or low oncoming sun. I actually have no idea what Tesla uses..
Other technology uses 17 or 25ghz radar which is much better for this kind of stuff.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday July 01 2016, @02:29AM
That was my first thought, how didn't the car see the truck? Then I realized it was using a camera. Why not both a camera and radar? Seems to me you'd want redundancy, possibly triple so two sensors/computers can vote against a third misbehaving one.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by PocketSizeSUn on Friday July 01 2016, @06:49AM
Because Telsa's autopilot is a nifty software hack using NVidia's GPUs and on-board cameras. It is miles away from and 10's of thousands of USD cheaper than using using LIDAR. Which is, as far as I am aware, the only computer vision input being taken seriously for actual autonomous driving.
You can use fast GPUs and visual cameras to prototype but production is LIDAR. The kinds of money'd id10t that is Tesla's target market can show off to their friends. It's surprising safe on the happy path ... unfortunately now that someone has spectacularly failed we can expect a lot of over reaction and conflating what Telsa is doing and real engineering toward autonomous driving followed by a lot of new legal road blocks to make sure it's safe ... thanks Elon ... you an Bill G. are my heroes.
Tesla relies on visual spectrum cameras which is far from the industry standard of LIDAR for autonomous driving. This is a classic GI/GO problem. Human vs computer image recognition when the image is 'polar bear in a snow storm' results in everybody losses.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday July 01 2016, @12:38PM
I was referring to lower cost radio radar on existing cars that assist with emergency braking and adaptive cruise control.It could easily be integrated into such a system as a comparison mechanism and this collision would not have happened.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Friday July 01 2016, @05:26PM
I assure you GHZ radar in cars is not 10s of thousands of dollars. Its usually included in a Safety Tech option package that includes backup cams, blindspot detection, adaptive cruise control and front collision avoidance.
Usually that whole package goes for something in the neighborhood of $2000 to $2500 additional, which you may well recover in lower insurance premiums if you keep the car 5 years.
Lots of different car companies are offering this package, which is available from three or four third parties. (Almost no car manufacturer develops their own).
The quality of the programming has improved dramatically over the last decade. I did quite a bit of research on this when buying my last car.
Lane following is usually done with cameras, because the radar does not see paint well, and paint is poorly maintained. My friend's beamer with lane following often gets confused and alarms. He considers it an annoyance.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 01 2016, @02:29AM
Came here to say the same thing, from http://www.techinsider.io/tesla-model-s-autopilot-fatal-crash-2016-6 [techinsider.io]
Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied.
This sounds like camera only, and one camera can not measure the distance (range) to an object. Clever processing can probably decide what is in front and what is in the background, but afaik this is all inferred. When calibrated, stereo cameras can range out to some distance but it seems like radar or lidar (both transmit and then time when the reflection returns) are required to measure the distance repeatably.
(Score: 2) by MadTinfoilHatter on Friday July 01 2016, @05:51AM
I actually have no idea what Tesla uses.
Apparently they bought theirs from Volvo [youtube.com]