First hand report of autopilot driving in electrek

[LetsGoFast]

This guy has ridden in a beta tester's car (or perhaps driven it) and describes in detail how the alerts work when the car senses that it needs user input. There is second part yet to come.

How autopilot works (part 1)

How autopilot works (part 2)

 

[Cyclone]

This guy has ridden in a beta tester's car (or perhaps driven it) and describes in detail how the alerts work when the car senses that it needs user input. There is second part yet to come.

How autopilot works (part 1)

I hope this makes it into the general v7 release! I recall posting that I think Tesla would do something like this given Elon's comments about AP in other cars disengaging at the wrong times (driver incapacitation).

If you ignore the “hold the steering-wheel” alert for too long, even if it’s now back to normal for the Autopilot, it will change into a “take control immediately” alert, which will flash your hazard lights, slow down and steer the vehicle to the side of the road. The transition is presumably the Autopilot assuming that if you are not seeing the alert, you might be incapacitated and therefore it stops the vehicle.

 

[LetsGoFast]

My wife always complained that the Mercedes approach (just turn off autopilot if you don't respond) was borderline dangerous and advocated for the exact implementation Tesla appears to be using. I think you are both right that it is the right way to do it and I'm not aware of any competing product that handles it this well.

 

[DJ Frustration]

How is this website getting these scoops in clear violation of some beta tester non-disclosure agreement? It's very interesting info, but how has this gone on without some injuction by Tesla?

 

[Cyclone]

How is this website getting these scoops in clear violation of some beta tester non-disclosure agreement? It's very interesting info, but how has this gone on without some injuction by Tesla?

If I had to guess, and this is a complete guess, the author reached out to Tesla and got a green-light to publish once general release was imminent. They could have written this last month, but didn't publish until Tesla gave the ok. Otherwise, I could see Tesla being in a fit over this.

 

[LetsGoFast]

How is this website getting these scoops in clear violation of some beta tester non-disclosure agreement? It's very interesting info, but how has this gone on without some injuction by Tesla?

The website has no contractual agreement with Tesla and they are not subject to injunction and only risk losing any cooperation they might have had from Tesla's PR staff. The beta tester who is providing them the information is the one who is subject to legal consequences. If Tesla manages to identify who that is, they probably have a range of legal options available to them depending on exactly what is contained in their beta-testing agreement.

- - - Updated - - -

If I had to guess, and this is a complete guess, the author reached out to Tesla and got a green-light to publish once general release was imminent. They could have written this last month, but didn't publish until Tesla gave the ok. Otherwise, I could see Tesla being in a fit over this.

I think it is extremely unlikely that Tesla agreed to the publication of this information.

 

[hockeythug]

Looking at that site it appears they just look on here for their stories. Besides the part of the story that claims that the car will pull its self over I saw nothing new.

 

[eye.surgeon]

There's a lot of new information in that story. It's the most detailed real world account of how autopilot will function I've seen yet. Very informative.

 

[perkiset]

Implementation of the AP sounds perfect, but that screen image is going to flare up a whole new line of UI hating ...

I deeply hope that there's nothing particular on that screen that Tesla uses for IDing a Beta tester. I was involved in one like that where there were small pixel "tells" about the particular version and who would've had it so they could nail the testers. Hoping this leak doesn't tag anyone.

 

[LetsGoFast]

I deeply hope that there's nothing particular on that screen that Tesla uses for IDing a Beta tester. I was involved in one like that where there were small pixel "tells" about the particular version and who would've had it so they could nail the testers. Hoping this leak doesn't tag anyone.

I'm not sure if the headline photo is from their beta-tester, but the combination of displaying in km, charge level and odometer reading at an exact date and time might well allow Tesla to identify someone or at a minimum narrow the list down to a very small number of candidates.

Also, that screen capture was part of their last article, so hopefully it doesn't rile up the UI haters any more than they have already been. :wink:

 

[Rafik]

That image isn't from his actual testing of the car - it's just the same recycled image we've seen countless times of the v7 IC from a past leak.

 

[schonelucht]

This guy has ridden in a beta tester's car (or perhaps driven it) and describes in detail how the alerts work when the car senses that it needs user input. There is second part yet to come.

Sounds like a good balance. One minor thing Tesla users may have to watch for : in some jurisdiction, flashing your hazard lights is strictly regulated and the conditions under which you may do so are restrictively enumerated. For example, in Belgium it's only allowed when loading/unloading children in a designated school area, when a vehicle is immobilized at a dangerous position due to technical defect or accident or when there is an imminent danger of an accident. You could make a case that the Tesla automated use of such signal falls under the latter but good luck convincing a cop who stops you because your car flashed its lights in conditions that seem ordinary but aren't quite (as the article points out)

 

[tstafford]

I hope the article's description of how it works survives in to production. It sounds pretty awesome to me.

Side note - I was showing wife TACC today for the first time. We got cut off by a pick-up and it triggered the crash avoidance. Car handled it all seamlessly. She was terrified. I admit I was very close to taking over for the car!

 

[gizmoboy]

The "unattended shutdown" does sound like a great approach. My Infiniti just beeps and gives up, leaving it to the driver to sort out the rest. As someone pointed out, if you've fallen asleep or had a heart attack or seizure or something, this is exactly what a car should do. (Of course, cue the person complaining that the car hit something or got hit while pulling them over to the side of the road, but if they're having a seizure, that's still likely better than the alternative...)

 

[Johan]

Very interesting.

 

[Jeff N]

Part 2 is now online.

 

[LetsGoFast]

I added a link to Part 2 in the OP. The main points are that it doesn't work particularly well in city driving (although it usually lets you try) and that parallel parking is pretty well automated. I'm not sure what the sentence "Although the feature only works for parallel parking where there are cars on both sides" means. On the surface, it seems to say that you can only parallel park on one lane roads with parking on both sides, but surely that can't be true.

 

[cyrux]

I added a link to Part 2 in the OP. The main points are that it doesn't work particularly well in city driving (although it usually lets you try) and that parallel parking is pretty well automated. I'm not sure what the sentence "Although the feature only works for parallel parking where there are cars on both sides" means. On the surface, it seems to say that you can only parallel park on one lane roads with parking on both sides, but surely that can't be true.

I think what he meant was autopark will work in between 2 cars. So if you are the first car or last car in the lane, I dont think auto pilot will work.

 

[RAW84]

Yea it's saying between two cars.....he also notes that it won't work if the two cars are too far a part.

 

[Stoneymonster]

I think what he meant was autopark will work in between 2 cars. So if you are the first car or last car in the lane, I dont think auto pilot will work.

Which is consistent with our understanding of the sensor suite... and really if you can't parallel park with free space on front or back...