Elon Musk: Human drivers are dangerous

[TEG]

It doesn't look like Google LIDAR can handle snow, rain, etc. either.
Google’s self-driving car can’t drive through rain or snow | Digital Trends

Yeah, OK, I guess they aren't able to handle really bad weather either.

Google Says Snow More of Self-Driving Car Snag Than NHTSA - Bloomberg Business

The technology giant doesn’t intend to offer a self-driving car to areas where it snows in the near term, Chris Urmson, director of Google’s self-driving car project, told reporters today in Detroit.
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“There’s a lot made about the fact we have this spinning, Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket of lasers on the roof of our car,” Urmson said. “It’s ugly, it’s too big, too expensive. We’ve always known that had to go.”
The smaller sensors Google has been developing internally have improved capability to see through fog and rain, and night-driving is not a problem. Still, they won’t be a good fit for Detroit, at least initially.

Google car is no match for snow and ice | Toronto Star

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When self-navigating automobiles encounter snow and ice, driving becomes tricky, say experts who believe obstacle detection technology has a long way to go before it can cope with the winter elements.

“A lot of these vehicles use computer vision systems to look at the roadway ahead to understand where the lane boundaries are. When the road is covered in snow, they can’t see the lane boundaries,” said Steven Shladover, an advanced transportation researcher from the University of California, Berkeley.

Part of the problem, Massachusetts Institute of Technology mechanical engineering professor John Leonard adds, is that the light-detection sensors Google and other self-driving vehicles use can be tricked by snow into perceiving that there is a “phantom obstacle” in the way.
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Experts believe that computer vision systems cannot sense black ice even when equipped with built-in digital maps, GPS technology and laser scanners for positioning and obstacle detection. Using those tools, self-driving cars build maps that are accurate up to a few centimeters. But when snow builds into banks and covers the roads, shifting every few moments, it means everything needs to be remapped.
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Interesting video:

 

[mspohr]

Reading the concern about inclement conditions underscores why I think Elon properly uses the "autopilot" terminology. We don't have airlines using autonomous airplanes and it will be a long time before autonomous cars will be used everywhere and under all conditions.

That said, autopilot cars can be deployed for most conditions. They will reduce accidents when humans stay out of the way and let them work.

An old joke in the airline industry is that the airplane of the future would have a pilot and a dog.
The dog is there to keep the pilot from touching the controls.

 

[Rheazombi]

Reading the concern about inclement conditions underscores why I think Elon properly uses the "autopilot" terminology. We don't have airlines using autonomous airplanes and it will be a long time before autonomous cars will be used everywhere and under all conditions.

That said, autopilot cars can be deployed for most conditions. They will reduce accidents when humans stay out of the way and let them work.

This is exactly how I see it happening. I don't think cars will be fully autonomous, at least in my lifetime (I'm in my 20s).