Autonomous Car Progress

[JHCCAZ]

Just hard too imagine that, given all those redundant sensors, that a Cruise would roll into something as huge as a bus. I mean, there are TMC posters who constantly remind us that the only good sensor is an additional sensor. Perhaps it's finally time for Cruise to install a gamma ray spectrometer. A gravitometer might have helped. A bus has a lot of mass.

Surely a muon scanner, as we know that cosmic particles can penetrate even San Francisco weather.

A neutrino detector for certain edge cases, as soon as they beef up the vehicle suspension , and shrink it so it fits on Lombard Street.

A Yang particle detector, mainly for the Chinatown geofence.

 

[kabin]

All Tesla's have AEB as a standard safety feature although I think AEB only activates in manual driving, not when on AP, so I guess Bard is kind of correct to say that AP does not have AEB. But Tesla vehicles do have AEB. Also, it is weird that it only mentions AP and does not mention FSD beta.

I agree it doesn't seem to distinguish between AP and FSD. Hopefully the single stack will clean up that confusion for everyone.

I was wondering about how Tesla implements AEB. Some online videos show FSD disengage at the last moment which may or may not be beneficial in a real accident.

 

[Dewg]

Surely a muon scanner, as we know that cosmic particles can penetrate even San Francisco weather.

A neutrino detector for certain edge cases, as soon as they beef up the vehicle suspension , and shrink it so it fits on Lombard Street.

A Yang particle detector, mainly for the Chinatown geofence.

You guys are over thinking it. Get rid of all the sensors and just mount a tricorder on the hood. Problem solved.

 

[JHCCAZ]

You guys are over thinking it. Get rid of all the sensors and just mount a tricorder on the hood. Problem solved.

If you know me, you know that I'll want tricorders in the headlights

 

[stopcrazypp]

Something much more dangerous happened recently, two Cruise vehicles drove right past caution tape and directly into downed power lines. Luckily it was Muni lines that likely were deenergized by then, but it could have led to something much more serious:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1638406267646644224

Cruise Robotaxis Spotted Tangled In Caution Tape And Downed Wires After SF Storm

The pair of robotaxis was spotted by Twitter user John-Philip, who said that the autonomous Chevy Bolts didn’t detect the caution tape blocking a street.

insideevs.com

 

[Supcom]

Something much more dangerous happened recently, two Cruise vehicles drove right past caution tape and directly into downed power lines. Luckily it was Muni lines that likely were deenergized by then, but it could have led to something much more serious:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1638406267646644224

Cruise Robotaxis Spotted Tangled In Caution Tape And Downed Wires After SF Storm

The pair of robotaxis was spotted by Twitter user John-Philip, who said that the autonomous Chevy Bolts didn’t detect the caution tape blocking a street.

insideevs.com

First running into a bus, now power lines. Cruise vehicles turning against the humans? I'd stay off the streets.

 

[Cheburashka]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1639058097082859526

I wonder how the accident happened. Surely, the Cruise saw such a large object in front it. Seems odd that the Cruise would rear end it.

Irrefutable proof that Cruise is running stolen code from Tesla.

 

[EVNow]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1639058097082859526

I wonder how the accident happened. Surely, the Cruise saw such a large object in front it. Seems odd that the Cruise would rear end it.

So "made contact" is the corporate euphemism AV industry uses for crashes / accidents ?

 

[EVNow]

I don't know if anyone really says that.

So apparently you don't know a lot of haters who post here ...

 

[diplomat33]

So "made contact" is the corporate euphemism AV industry uses for crashes / accidents ?

Yes.

 

[diplomat33]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1639999549455454210

I think this is a real possibility. The Cruise incidents certainly don't help. I could see GM deciding that giving Cruise billions every year is not worth it and it would be better to move the Cruise team to work on Ultra Cruise to deliver something tangible for their consumer cars.

 

[Doggydogworld]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1639999549455454210

I think this is a real possibility. The Cruise incidents certainly don't help. I could see GM deciding that giving Cruise billions every year is not worth it and it would be better to move the Cruise team to work on Ultra Cruise to deliver something tangible for their consumer cars.

Barra would just bring in more investors. Her successor might pull the plug, though.

 

[EVNow]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1639999549455454210

I think this is a real possibility. The Cruise incidents certainly don't help. I could see GM deciding that giving Cruise billions every year is not worth it and it would be better to move the Cruise team to work on Ultra Cruise to deliver something tangible for their consumer cars.

It is obviously better to make money than lose money.

I wonder when Google will learn that

 

[diplomat33]

It is obviously better to make money than lose money.

I wonder when Google will learn that

Google's reported annual profit in 2022 was $224B. Google is not losing money. And with $224B profits per year, they can afford to lose a few billion to Waymo, especially since Waymo is the AV leader by far, with the best driverless, the safest driverless, and making the best progress in scaling driverless in the US than anyone.

In comparison, GM's annual profit in 2022 was "only" $21B. They have less margin for losing money with Cruise, especially since those billions are just getting them the #2 in driverless that is only doing public driverless at night and still has some embarrassing safety issues like hitting a freaking bus!

Now don't get me wrong. Waymo needs to make a profit at some point. I just think they have a bit more leeway than Cruise.

 

[EVNow]

Google's reported annual profit in 2022 was $224B. Google is not losing money. And with $224B profits per year, they can afford to lose a few billion to Waymo,

This is exactly the reason Google should be prosecuted. They are using their monopoly money from Search etc to highly subsidize and illegally compete in another space.

If we had *real* market economics, the government would be swatting down on such illegal activity.

 

[diplomat33]

This is exactly the reason Google should be prosecuted. They are using their monopoly money from Search etc to highly subsidize and illegally compete in another space.

If we had *real* market economics, the government would be swatting down on such illegal activity.

There is nothing illegal about what Google is doing. Google made their profits in the search engine space legitimately. And companies have every right to use their profits in one economic sector to expand to a different economic sector. You might not like it because maybe you feel it is giving Waymo an unfair advantage but there is nothing illegal about it.

 

[nativewolf]

Yes that is a bizarre leap- a successful company not being able to invest elsewhere.

Now in the future I fully expect google to use search to enhance profits from waymo. That could be an issue

 

[EVNow]

There is nothing illegal about what Google is doing. Google made their profits in the search engine space legitimately. And companies have every right to use their profits in one economic sector to expand to a different economic sector. You might not like it because maybe you feel it is giving Waymo an unfair advantage but there is nothing illegal about it.

You are woefully ignorant about regulations. Microsoft was prosecuted for something much more benign.

Market Economics for the poor and socialism for the big companies. Thats how this *free market* runs.

 

[DanCar]

... Waymo is the AV leader by far, with the best driverless, ...

I'll give that crown to Tesla, because it is available and Waymo is not available to me and 99% of other people. I expect that to continue in the foreseeable future. Yes, I have to supervise Tesla when it is driving, but that is better than nothing. And the updates are very entertaining.

 

[diplomat33]

I'll give that crown to Tesla, because it is available and Waymo is not available to me and 99% of other people. I expect that to continue in the foreseeable future. Yes, I have to supervise Tesla when it is driving, but that is better than nothing. And the updates are very entertaining.

You do realize the definition of autonomous driving is that the car can drive without human supervision? So the fact that you have to supervise FSD beta is precisely what makes Tesla not the AV leader. Tesla is the leader in L2 "point to point navigation".