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A comment on Tesla in autopilot mode crashes into parked Laguna Beach police cruiser. Parent comment

Re:Tesla in autopilot mode crashes into parked Laguna Beach ... by jellicle on Tuesday May 29, 2018 @09:52PM (#17184394)
I don't think people realize that "Tesla Autopilot" will never, ever, ever stop for an object in front of it. Tesla has said repeatedly it isn't designed to do so. If you run a Tesla toward a brick wall with Autopilot on, it will crash into it 100 out of 100 times. It will hit ANYTHING in the lane ahead of you. It isn't designed to stop in such cases.

So there's no need for a UI. If there's something ahead of you, you must stop or you will hit it full speed without braking.

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Re:Tesla in autopilot mode crashes into parked Laguna Beach ... by manigandham on Tuesday May 29, 2018 @11:09PM (#17184745)
They definitely can and do stop. There are plenty of videos of accidents avoided because of stopping, and this is a rather common feature on most mid to high-end cars now, commonly called a collision avoidance system and grouped under the umbrella of pre-crash safety systems.

The avoidance feature is designed to stop the car in the event of an unavoidable obstacle directly ahead. It doesn't guarantee a stop but it will still apply the brakes faster and more fully than a human can react and thus shed more speed from the impact. Pre-crash safety will also tighten the seatbelts, move seat positions, close windows, and inflate auxiliary airbags in preparation, and these are all well-tested and proven features.

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Re:Tesla in autopilot mode crashes into parked Laguna Beach ... by aetherson on Tuesday May 29, 2018 @10:00PM (#17184435)
What? That's not true. It can and does brake for objects in front of you that it senses. Its ability to sense objects is sadly very incomplete, but it does (quite often, but not often enough) successfully sense objects and slow or stop for them.

See page 93 of this owner's manual, for example: https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/model_s_owners_man...

(What it won't do is steer around obstructions in a lane, either full or partial.)

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Re:Tesla in autopilot mode crashes into parked Laguna Beach ... by beamatronic on Tuesday May 29, 2018 @10:12PM (#17184488)
What is the difference between “objects in front of you that it senses” and “obstructions in a lane”?
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Re:Tesla in autopilot mode crashes into parked Laguna Beach ... by aetherson on Tuesday May 29, 2018 @10:25PM (#17184551)
Well, I guess the second doesn't presuppose that it senses them. But I think you concentrated on the wrong thing:

Autopilot is not designed to steer around obstructions.

Autopilot is designed to brake for obstructions.

It sometimes fails to brake for obstructions. But it sometimes succeeds in braking for obstructions. It never steers around obstructions, even if it senses them perfectly.

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Re:Tesla in autopilot mode crashes into parked Laguna Beach ... by vsl on Thursday May 31, 2018 @03:52AM (#17194700)
Emergency braking is designed to lessen the impact, not prevent crash. See manual. This is mostly for avoiding crashes into a car that suddenly stops in front of you, I.e. in lower speed city traffic and jams. For this, detection within a few meters is all you need - ultrasound sensors might do. If the velocity delta is 120km/h, you’re not going to meaningfully slow down when already this close.
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