Re:Upgrading Autopilot: Seeing the World in Radar
by patcheudor on Sunday September 11, 2016 @04:30PM
(#12475513)
I wrestle with this one and am afraid that at the point a car is driving itself, a EULA that the driver agrees to which states: "I will always maintain concentration and control of the vehicle in the case things go wrong" isn't accounting for how the human brain actually works. Humans only make for good backup systems when they are engaged and/or have time to react. I'll give Elon some credit. This is one heck of an experiment with a life critical system.
you could do the same with "normal" cameras (and probably lidar as well) i guess by pointing a laserpointer at it. the safest option is probably to just brake.
here elon musk says they don't use lidar: https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/11/tesla-autopilot-8-0-uses-r...
(as an aside, some years ago we had incidents in the news where people pointed laserpointers at aircraft pilots while landing. the pilot's appropriate response is usually to abort the landing and do a go-around, because that's the safest thing to do in this situation)