Posting this short video (5 sec) captured by the dash cam as a cautionary note for those who use the Tesla autopilot on secondary roads. The video shows my almost hitting a pedestrian dressed in dark at night standing still in the middle of my lane. The autopilot did not detect the person, but fortunately I did.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
should not be using on a secondary road, nor in the rain. just inviting trouble
Why didn’t the radar see him? Dark clothes shouldn’t matter... it clearly wasn’t flat road space ahead of car.
Why is the title phrased in term of AutoPilot? Detection (AEB, warnings,...) is engaged even when not in Autopilot?
Strange but my Bolt would have detected that and shown a pedestrian icon on the screen...I see that all the time on country roads even when pedestrian walk on the side of the road
My Tesla does not seem to detect as I have never seen a warning.
Strange but my Bolt would have detected that and shown a pedestrian icon on the screen...I see that all the time on country roads even when pedestrian walk on the side of the road
My Tesla does not seem to detect as I have never seen a warning.
SomeJoe7777
Marginally-Known Member
Radar sees metal. Unless the pedestrian is a cyborg, the radar gets no reflection/return.
The camera has some rudimentary programming right now to see pedestrians, but only if visible. This is a dark night, raining, and the pedestrian was wearing very dark clothing. By all accounts, even humans who were paying attention may not have seen him. This pedestrian actually was damn lucky.
I have to say that I didn't see her the first time I played the video until the last moment. On the 2nd try, yeah I saw her from a few seconds away.. but only because I knew she was there. But I thought AP use ultrasound as well as camera for front. I thought it would have seen her.
ultrasonic is too slow and short range to see something like this - IMHO.
⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️
Village Idiot
It works really well in the rain, but I only use AP on the highway.
SoCalDude
Life is good!
insaneoctane
Well-Known Member
Not as much trouble as that bone-headed pedestrian was inviting!
I use autopilot every single time I drive literally every second. While it is excellent at detecting cars ahead I have always worried about detecting pedestrians and I find autopilot very unreliable in detecting pedestrians and even those on bike. I think it’s not big enough for the radar to detect them or something
JG T3SLA
Member
I find using autopilot allows you to look further down the road and be more defensive in these situations since you are not focusing on minding your speed or position in your lane as much.
I don’t expect autopilot to detect and avoid debris in the roadway or to the extreme like this a person. Use the system as intended... as a driver aide and not as a driver replacement.
I don’t expect autopilot to detect and avoid debris in the roadway or to the extreme like this a person. Use the system as intended... as a driver aide and not as a driver replacement.
Krugerrand
Meow
A cautionary tale: Don’t stand in the middle of a busy road, at night, in dark clothing, during bad weather umm....or at all. You might get hit. That’s what I got out of that.
I'm amazed that people are buying this car expecting full self driving capability. This is dangerous and Tesla needs to do a better job of educating buyers since we know that most will never read the manual. There was another post where someone was surprised the car didn't stop for a red light.
That's a cautionary tale for pedestrians, not Autopilot users. Visibility is severely restricted when there's a combination of dark, rain and traffic. There's a lot of glare. You had better dress in bright clothing.
I don't see this as being anything other than a cautionary tale that the ADAS of the Tesla vehicle doesn't work well enough to detect a pedestrian standing in the middle of the lane in front of it.
It's what I'd call a reset moment. Where I get excited by this kind of technology, but then there are moments where it simply doesn't work.
To me it doesn't have anything to do with autopilot as that wasn't where the failure was, and it doesn't have anything to do with the pedestrian. Sure it was moronically stupid, but it happens all the time.
At the very least you should have received a FCW with braking (since you were in AP). We can't tell if AEB would have activated since you took over as you were supposed to.
The very fact that you succeeded and it failed is proof that as of now the Neural Network of the vehicle (what's responsible for this detection) simply isn't good enough.
If I was in your shoes I'd alert Tesla via email to the occurrence, and a link to the video.
It's what I'd call a reset moment. Where I get excited by this kind of technology, but then there are moments where it simply doesn't work.
To me it doesn't have anything to do with autopilot as that wasn't where the failure was, and it doesn't have anything to do with the pedestrian. Sure it was moronically stupid, but it happens all the time.
At the very least you should have received a FCW with braking (since you were in AP). We can't tell if AEB would have activated since you took over as you were supposed to.
The very fact that you succeeded and it failed is proof that as of now the Neural Network of the vehicle (what's responsible for this detection) simply isn't good enough.
If I was in your shoes I'd alert Tesla via email to the occurrence, and a link to the video.
Similar threads
