Re:Contrary to Musk's claim, Lidar has some advantages in Se...
by davidgould on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @05:42AM
(#20633180)
Can you explain how a lidar sees a child hidden between cars? I was under the impression that lidar was line of sight.
Re:Contrary to Musk's claim, Lidar has some advantages in Se...
by moduspol on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @08:07AM
(#20633903)
The things detectable in the visible spectrum are what humans use to drive.
Will it be apparent how fundamentally problematic this is when a human runs over a kid chasing a ball into the street because it couldn't see him between the cars?
How many people have been killed by human drivers due to blind spots?
Re:Contrary to Musk's claim, Lidar has some advantages in Se...
by lolc on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @03:48AM
(#20632721)
Exactly. Until a car with reliable object permanence is demonstrated Tesla must tone down their promises. This LIDAR controversy is just a sideshow. Though a car having it will be able to outperform a car without it in many scenarios. An improvement over baseline human perception is very welcome.
The first time Tesla runs over a kid chasing a ball into the street because it couldn't see him between the cars, this will be readily apparent.
Seems to me that Tesla is in the business of selling cars, other self driving companies are interested in AV for ride sharing or trucking. The latter have different requirements for styling and costs and the consumer case, so Musk has several limitations on the sensor suite he includes in a Tesla.
What he's doing is trying to argue a $5k system with cheap cameras and crappy radar coverage is all that is needed, because a full no-blind-spot multi-spectrum system would both cost too much AND likely make the car look ugly.
Two people have already been killed, and several injured, by Tesla autopilot due to blind spots.