Autonomous Car Progress

[KArnold]

Aurora is merging with Reinvent Technologies Partners Y and going public.

Personally I'm a fan of Aurora as my son is one of their developers.

They have an interesting approach - starting relatively quietly in autonomous robotics/military apps, but publicly more focused on the end-to-end freight hauling business. I would think self-driving would be easier to develop in a car as opposed to an 18-wheeler, but I'm not expert. Perhaps the biggest challenge for them is that last mile, which they admit. It would be interesting to see one of these back up to the loading dock. They may not be first in the personal self-driving automobile but they will be a player, no doubt. But with them now owning UBER, who knows? It's not uncommon to see self-driving cars just about anywhere in PIttsburgh from multiple companies.

And honestly, it's also refreshing to see their disclaimer about "Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" as opposed to boldface lies on Twitter.

 

[Matias]

Mercedes is seeking regulatory approval to bring L3 "traffic jam" later this year to Germany. It would only be on highways up to 37 mph (so basically just in stop and go traffic situations) but it would be completely "eye's off":

Mercedes to launch self-driving feature for the German autobahn

Daimler's premium brand would be the first to offer in its flagship sedan limited "eyes-off" autonomy

fortune.com

As the article mentions, Audi and BMW also promised to introduce L3 "traffic jam" and it has not happened yet. Let's see if Mercedes actually goes through with it.

”full responsibility”.

 

[Bladerskb]

zeek AD UI options from inside Zeekr 001 show car.

Shows three tabs: Automatic Driving Assistance System | NZP | Automatic Parking Assistance System

 

[stopcrazypp]

zeek AD UI options from inside Zeekr 001 show car.

Shows three tabs: Automatic Driving Assistance System | NZP | Automatic Parking Assistance System

What's up with the messed up font? Did someone overlay a translation on it or something?

And what's with copying the Tesla UI? I get doing that a few years ago (like XPeng did) but I would hope at this point they could come up with a more original UI.

 

[Bladerskb]

What's up with the messed up font? Did someone overlay a translation on it or something?

And what's with copying the Tesla UI? I get doing that a few years ago (like XPeng did) but I would hope at this point they could come up with a more original UI.

That's just me running the screenshots through a translator.
I wouldn't say they copied Tesla's UI but more like they are inspired by it.
Tesla's UI is pretty much using the industry standard (control panel) interface in UX/UI

 

[stopcrazypp]

That's just me running the screenshots through a translator.
I wouldn't say they copied Tesla's UI but more like they are inspired by it.
Tesla's UI is pretty much using the industry standard (control panel) interface in UX/UI

Thanks for the clarification.

The placement/size of the menu items (side bar, lower bar), the choice of the color palette and icon design, to even the orientation of the screen is way too close to Tesla's original model 3/Y UI (the new one they pushed out is a bit different) to say it's just "inspired" in my book. There's way too many other different design choices they could have chosen.

 

[mhan00]

Well, that’s a legitimate goal, but not one I share. For instance, I drive about a half hour to my favorite park for trail runs. On the weekend, if I go early it’s usually pretty clear and I drive myself. Later in the day or on weekdays, there’s often a bunch of traffic. Then I let AP do the driving, because it’s more relaxing and slow drivers don’t irritate me nearly as much if AP is in control. Basic AP and stop light/sign controls are nice, but I still have to take over for every turn, and there are about 10 turns on the trip. It would be nice if it would handle those too so I didn’t have to take over for common, expected conditions.

I expect I’ll still need manual control for a while at one stop sign where the route goes straight but hedges block the view of cross traffic until you pull up way past the painted line, and also one super-narrow bridge (like, everyone folds their mirrors narrow). But reducing 12 interventions to 2 would be great for me, and a big win even if I can’t sleep on the drive.

On the other hand, one family member won’t consider activating FSD until Tesla takes full responsibility for any accidents.

So it seems FSD adoption won’t be all at once, but progressive as the capability reaches various people’s milestones.

Agreed. Being able to set it and sleep/read/watch TV would be ideal, but that doesn’t mean supervised partial FSD wouldn’t be useful. Like you, I already use AP a lot, both on freeways and city streets. Letting the car handle the speed and basic steering while I maintain situational awareness and keep my hand on the wheel and my foot ready to hit the brake or accelerator as needed is pleasant. Turning the wheel, pressing the go pedal, hitting the brake, all these things sap a little bit of mental and physical energy that you don’t notice until you don’t have to do them, even when you’re disengaging AP all the time like I do anytime I feel it’s doing something iffy or when I’m approaching a situation I’m not comfortable with AP doing. I’d love this version of FSD Beta in my car, even though I know Tesla won’t be releasing it as is for liability reasons. I think there’s a decent chance a more wide release will go live later this year that introduces a lot of driver confirmations for more complex maneuvers like unprotected turns and passing cars/trucks stopped in through lanes and/or just coming to a stop and screaming for help when it approaches an unrecognized obstacle in the road, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

 

[Matias]

Tesla’s FSD is very very far away

https://twitter.com/x/status/1416284907299647489

https://twitter.com/x/status/1416285287165186049

https://twitter.com/x/status/1416285546570293248

 

[idriveacar]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1416286233962160128

apparently it's more like "two months"... which means, yeah, a year or two.

 

[daniel]

Agreed. Being able to set it and sleep/read/watch TV would be ideal, but that doesn’t mean supervised partial FSD wouldn’t be useful. Like you, I already use AP a lot, both on freeways and city streets. Letting the car handle the speed and basic steering while I maintain situational awareness and keep my hand on the wheel and my foot ready to hit the brake or accelerator as needed is pleasant. Turning the wheel, pressing the go pedal, hitting the brake, all these things sap a little bit of mental and physical energy that you don’t notice until you don’t have to do them, even when you’re disengaging AP all the time like I do anytime I feel it’s doing something iffy or when I’m approaching a situation I’m not comfortable with AP doing.

Yes! I've been saying this for years. (Except that I no longer use it on city streets.) Not having to micro-steer on the highway or control the speed leaves me with more brain-power for situational awareness and makes driving much more relaxing. AP (or in my case EAP) is truly wonderful.

I'd love to have L3, but I'm not holding my breath to have that any time soon. And I don't believe it will be possible with the hardware in my car. When it becomes available, I'll trade in my car. Until then, EAP was worth every penny I paid for it, even though AP is now standard, and is what I'd get if my car were totaled and I had to replace it now.

 

[dgatwood]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1416284907299647489

So three months, maybe. Six months, definitely.

 

[linux-works]

So three months, maybe. Six months, definitely.

but this is elon, so you have to convert to dog years. I think that's multiplying by seven, isn't it?

 

[diplomat33]

Mobileye fans rejoice! MB will be holding a press conference in NYC to announce something related to autonomous driving:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1417193023499296771

I am guessing MB will announce autonomous testing in NYC.

 

[diplomat33]

Aurora discussing their AV approach and their plans to go public:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1417136140625321987

 

[diplomat33]

Mobileye Press Conference in NYC:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1417507446713733124

MB is going to release a 40 mn unedited FSD drive in NYC!

 

[diplomat33]

I think Amnon mentioned that MB's SuperVision is coming at the end of this year. 12 cameras, 2 eyeQ5 chips. It will be L2 but with same capability as end-to-end self-driving in unedited NYC drive.

 

[FloridaJohn]

MB is going to release a 40 mn unedited FSD drive in NYC!

Why are we shortening "MobileEye" to "MB"? I would have thought "ME" would be the abbreviation. Or am I missing something totally obvious?

 

[diplomat33]

Unedited mobileye vision only FSD drive in NYC

 

[diplomat33]

Why are we shortening "MobileEye" to "MB"? I would have thought "ME" would be the abbreviation. Or am I missing something totally obvious?

Just my personal abbreviation.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

but this is elon, so you have to convert to dog years. I think that's multiplying by seven, isn't it?

No. It's actually more of a log function.

What you actually have to do is completely ignore any timelines he gives on this. He doesn't know, as has been shown very clearly, multiple times.