Self driving cars are a bad idea. There, I said it. It’s solving the wrong problem with technology that is nowhere near ready. The world is simply too dynamic and the “edge cases” matter.
Better safety features, however, will be a great side effect of this research though.
It sounds like your saying that self driving cars moving to the consumer market too soon is more of the problem. Am I understanding that correctly? If so, I agree. I think the tech is more like 10-15 years out still at least. There may be other smaller applications sooner but the continued improvement of safety features can be done now.
I’m not even sure 10-15 years is good. They’ve been 10-15 years for 10-15 years already. I’m personally at the point where they’re square in the “flying cars” category (which is coming “real soon now”!).
Detecting things is easy. Finding the road and following it is easy. Stopping the car when an obstruction is in the way is easy. What’s not easy are the 100,000 things that the developers haven’t thought of that happen in a real-world dynamic environment. And it’s a situation where lives are at stake so you need to get those right.
And then there is the issue that we already have “self-driving cars” in the form of light rail, busses, taxis, etc.
I think the combination of human driver with “AI Assist” for cruise control, avoiding obstacles, and other things is likely the way to go for cars for some time.
The Tesla Model Y is literally the safest passenger vehicle available right now.
Self driving vehicles are actually close, but as you said, the edge cases are a bitch.
Did I say autopilot was safe? I said the Tesla Model Y was the safest car - you know, by test crash ratings.
I hate Musk as much as the next guy, but people can’t separate that ass from the actual good things produced by some of the companies he owns.
FSD is fine if you still drive the car. People don’t do that, so it’s actually dangerous in the real world. It should be marketed VERY differently.
If you get into an accident, being in a Tesla is actually safer than a lot of cars because the car itself is very safe.
Of course everyone hates Musk, so anything related to Musk has to be down voted. Any opinion other than Space-X and Tesla is as shit as Twitter and Musk himself is wrong.
The thing is it’s been “real close” for ~10 years. But they’ve solved the “easy” problems. In development you spend 90% of your time on 10% of the problems. This is why fusion power has been “real close” for 30 years as well. Those remaining problems are the hard ones.
I genuinely don’t know why Tesla doesn’t just focus on the safety aspects of their tech rather than the “self-driving” BS. Having a car that will stop for me if the car in front slams their brakes on unexpectedly is a great thing. That’s a lot of accidents avoided.
