News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Tesla's Autopilot driving on Silicon Valley’s most dangerous road.

Re:Tesla's Autopilot driving on Silicon Valley’s most danger... by Traster on Thursday May 20, 2021 @04:36PM (#27226857)
I've got to ask- what is dangerous about this road? More generally, the roads with fatalities aren't necessarily "dangerous" per se, they're places where drivers make bad decisions. For example, wide roads are fast roads - if you make residential roads narrow it reduces the average speed due to perception[1] - if you want someone to drive slowly, artificially narrow the road. What it looks like here is that this is a wide fast road that allows drivers to make bad decisions. Which is sort of the best case scenario for Tesla. It's more interesting to see how a Tesla handles a roundabout or a turn across traffic- which I would guess simply results in the autopilot disinengaging, refusing to engage or crashing.

[1]https://nacto.org/docs/usdg/narrow_residential_streets_daisa...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tesla's Autopilot driving on Silicon Valley’s most danger... by dred_prte_rbrts on Thursday May 20, 2021 @08:04PM (#27229015)
"SR 17's combination of narrow shoulders, dense traffic, sharp turns, blind curves, wandering fauna such as deer and mountain lions, and sudden changes in traffic speeds have led to a number of collisions and fatalities, leading to the reputation of SR 17 as one of the most dangerous highways in the state. In the winter months, because SR 17 crosses a high precipitation area in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the roadway can become slippery from rain, snow or ice, especially at the summit." [0]

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Route_17

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tesla's Autopilot driving on Silicon Valley’s most danger... by olyjohn on Thursday May 20, 2021 @04:58PM (#27227153)
I like how this guy's post is "Here's a video of a Tesla steering itself on the highway. It's a better driver than you." Like this one video and this one experience on this road is proof that the car is flawless and has no issues. I don't see any other cars in the video crashing either, so they must all be better drivers. If this guy is so bad, he shouldn't have a license.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tesla's Autopilot driving on Silicon Valley’s most danger... by Mister_X on Friday May 21, 2021 @04:04AM (#27231574)
40 years ago I used to live off Summit Road, and a few years later off Laurel Road, so I rode my Honda 750 over SR17 every day into Silicon Valley, or Santa Cruz on the weekends for shopping.

And it's not that it's a dangerous highway per se, it's a combination of steep grades, decreasing radius corners, sharp blind downhill corners, steeply banked corners, narrow lanes with an accident causing concrete center divider.

But also, people who are in a hurry, and/or intimidated by Mtn Roads who then drive erratically (flatlanders).

At least once or twice a month I'd come across a recent accident, stop, run up the road and put out flares to warn oncoming traffic, even more in the busy summertime beach traffic.

[ Parent | on HN ]