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Transportation Technology

Tesla Autopilot 'Predicts' Accident Before It Happens (engadget.com) 186

A dash cam footage suggests a Tesla on Autopilot may have predicted a nearby freeway crash before it actually happened. A video showed that a Tesla car driving on a highway in the Netherlands started to beep a few seconds ahead of two cars colliding with each other in front of it. A Tesla representative confirmed to media that the beeping heard in the video is indeed the sound of Autopilot's Forward Collision Warning. Elon Musk tweeted a news article about the incident, adding more credibility to the matter. From a report on Engadget:Tesla's Autopilot 8.0 has a particularly clever feature: it uses radar to track road activity two cars ahead, helping it avoid danger that you wouldn't normally see. And it now appears that this tech just averted a disaster. Dutch Model X owner Frank van Hoesel has dashcam footage showing his electric crossover reacting to a bad highway crash before it even starts. As you can hear in the video, the Model X's Forward Collision Warning system starts braking when it detects the SUV two vehicles ahead coming to an abrupt stop, even though the driver of the car directly behind it is unaware. The result? Van Hoesel's EV remained untouched when it could easily have contributed to a pile-up.
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Tesla Autopilot 'Predicts' Accident Before It Happens

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  • by thygate ( 1590197 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2016 @03:30PM (#53567179)
    next i want to hear the alert for missile lock and see it auto deploy counter measures..
    • next i want to hear the alert for missile lock and see it auto deploy counter measures..

      You'll probably have to wait for their middle east rollout

  • Wake me up when my Tesla can predict tonight's Lotto numbers.

  • would be for the small car in front to be piloted by a non-human.

  • Predicts? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 )

    It can see the cars ahead and it saw the SUV breaking so it reacted. It did not predict anything other than a vehicle in front is breaking and it started breaking faster than a human can react.

    Tomorrow on slashdot..... "Scientists perform witchcraft by telling us that we will have a solar eclipse this next summer, and your jaw will drop and be speechless with a blown mind"

    • by Anonymous Coward

      it saw the SUV breaking so it reacted.

      The SUV didn't break until it rolled over. But it was braking until it broke.

  • by Bruce Perens ( 3872 ) <bruce@perens.com> on Wednesday December 28, 2016 @03:51PM (#53567287) Homepage Journal

    Gee, the comments on this so far stink. People seem to be prejudiced.

    First, the dashcam video presented is not from Tesla, it's from an independent car fan who seems to have gotten it from the driver. It was then retweeted by Elon Musk.

    The activity demonstrated is the Tesla Autopilot triggering on sudden deceleration of the second car ahead, which is not clearly visible from the dashcam view (and presumably equally not clearly visible to the driver). It appears that autopilot warns and brakes.

    Autopilot does not predict what happens to the cars ahead (although in second-car detections it's probably implied) and "anticipate" would be a better word anyway. Autopilot anticipates that the Tesla will hit something if it doesn't brake.

    Soneone on twitter pointed out that he heard the "disengage" sound after the warning sound, indicating that the driver brakes. I don't hear if, but I don't know what it sounds like. Does anyone else hear it?

    Someone pointed out that the Joshua Brown accident might not have happened if the radar had worked then. Yes, it might not have. One should also point out that Brown was speeding and apparently not looking. Despite its name, "autopilot" is not ready for the driver to disengage.

    • the Tesla Autopilot triggering on sudden deceleration of the second car ahead, which is not clearly visible from the dashcam view (and presumably equally not clearly visible to the driver). It appears that autopilot warns and brakes.

      It looks to me like the poor quality of the video makes it harder to see the second car ahead than it would be in real life. The car which suddenly stopped looks like it's a minivan, and even with the low resolution of the video, at the moment the warning system beeps you can c

      • I don't really trust myself to catch that sort of situation in time to brake 100% of the time. I'd be happy to have a system that could help me that way.

        Next question: was the Tesla maintaining a sufficient stopping distance? I tend to give more space than that.

        • You can select the following distance between 1-7 by twisting the cruise control lever. It's a time based system, so it will lengthen as speeds increase.

    • by rkww ( 675767 )
      The thing that worries me is the car in question has braked rapidly in the overtaking lane (even though there's still some runoff space), inviting somebody to run into the back of it.
  • The notion of prediction is not applicable to a partially observable, stochastic environment.
    • by Chrisq ( 894406 )

      The notion of prediction is not applicable to a partially observable, stochastic environment.

      Of course it is! A weather forecast is a prediction. Someone saying that a particular horse is most likely to win a race is a prediction. Of course in all cases there is only a certain probability of it being correct, but it is still a prediction.

  • And not just for Tesla either. Interesting how the video is published through the Twitter account of a personal injury consultant, no? It's not linked from the Tweet that's mentioned in the article and news outlets are actually conversing with this guy for the rights, even though their involvement seems lateral at best. Look for the video online and you find the same dude posting the tweet wherever they will have it (instead of just posting the YouTube copy that's also available, of course https://www.youtu [youtube.com]

  • Taking into account more of the available information, just not the car directly in front is just simply good driving whether it's a human or an AI vehicle. Happy to see this working in practice at least this time on a Tesla. One of the reason I hate riding with most drivers is that it seems very common to give driving only a minimal amount of attention and focus.
  • Save lives (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SETY ( 46845 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2016 @06:29PM (#53568181)

    This will save lives, full stop. You can crap all over Elon if you want, but the guy actually gets shit done. No it's not perfect, but it keeps getting better and it is at the point where it will save lives.

    • How so? According to many commenters who have seen the video the car was just in the right place at the right time and didn't do anything a human wouldn't.
  • The car merely noticed a speed difference with the car in front and started to brake. As the distance grew smaller and speed difference grew the braking became harder. Standard feature on that car.
  • Dumb luck causes Tesla's "autopilot" to look more ingenious than it actually is.

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards. -- Aldous Huxley

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