HWY101 accident..

[Waiting4M3]

My Model S Failing in Autopilot where the Model X had a fatal crash last week (Mountain View, CA) • r/teslamotors

This video is very informative IMO. The lane line is painted so badly, AP follows the more solid line on the left side of the lane, which is expected, but unfortunately that leads right into the crash barrier. Someone commented under the Youtube video that recently a Greyhound bus crashed exactly like this, so even a human driver got fooled.

 

[WannabeOwner]

Presumably all AP cars are going to make the same manoeuvre, is there no "patch" that Tesla can issue, once a critical location-fault becomes known, to override that? Even an "AP OFF" in the vicinity of the location will do, if making the car steer around the obstacle takes more time.

 

[Waiting4M3]

Presumably all AP cars are going to make the same manoeuvre, is there no "patch" that Tesla can issue, once a critical location-fault becomes known, to override that? Even an "AP OFF" in the vicinity of the location will do, if making the car steer around the obstacle takes more time.

I also have a question why the car didn't apply the breaks. Does the crash barrier not trigger a forward collision warning?

 

[banned-66611]

This seems to confirm it:

AP will kill you if you are not paying attention on that bit of road.

 

[Yuri_G]

I also have a question why the car didn't apply the breaks. Does the crash barrier not trigger a forward collision warning?

Not an expert, but I think Autopilot still doesn't detect stationary objects well at high speeds. I'd hope that is the Autopilot team's number one priority after this accident. As stated earlier in the thread, the system is getting very good at lane keeping, but when it fails it can be sudden and complacent drivers may not be ready to take control.

 

[zmarty]

I-TEAM EXCLUSIVE: Tesla crash in September showed similarities to fatal Mountain View accident

Unlike the crash that killed Walter Huang, the safety barrier was in working order. This driver walked away uninjured.

 

[fseir]

I don’t think the firmware version of his Model X was ever disclosed, but I’m wondering if maybe this was the first time he had driven the route after updating to 2018.10.4? Perhaps he had successfully navigated this interchange with an earlier firmware, and had gotten complacent? There are a few videos on YouTube that show autopilot failures with 10.4, in locations where earlier versions had been successful.

While this is just speculation, I think my take away is that you’ve really got to be extra vigilant after every single firmware upgrade. Even if autopilot shows broad improvement, you never know where it may fail, in an area where it had previously worked...

 

[cmaster]

The Tesla Service associates probably thinks an "Engineer" do not know what he's talking about when there's some problems how the Autopilot was behaving.

I mean, being an Engineer doesn't mean you are god and the mother of Physics. They do make mistakes. I.E. Calculating the angle of descent for a Mars Rover (there is a few percentage point of error). There's room for a margin of error when the Engineer complains.

Anyhow, the Tesla Service personal shouldn't take a complaint from an Engineer softly. They usually understand technology more than a non-engineer. Just as a Doctor is much more informed of the physics inside your body than a non-Doctor.

The Tesla Cars interact with physics outside of the body. And, that is when Engineers complaint matter in this aspect. Engineers manipulates physics to behave the way they want the real world to be. Right?

 

[dailo]

I was thinking the same thing, especially after seeing this post below. I've driven through this portion of 101 several times before but haven't yet with the latest AP updates.

Autopilot Barrier Lust (2018.12) • r/teslamotors

I don’t think the firmware version of his Model X was ever disclosed, but I’m wondering if maybe this was the first time he had driven the route after updating to 2018.10.4? Perhaps he had successfully navigated this interchange with an earlier firmware, and had gotten complacent? There are a few videos on YouTube that show autopilot failures with 10.4, in locations where earlier versions had been successful.

While this is just speculation, I think my take away is that you’ve really got to be extra vigilant after every single firmware upgrade. Even if autopilot shows broad improvement, you never know where it may fail, in an area where it had previously worked...

 

[fseir]

I was thinking the same thing, especially after seeing this post below. I've driven through this portion of 101 several times before but haven't yet with the latest AP updates.

Autopilot Barrier Lust (2018.12) • r/teslamotors

Wow, that’s an eye opening thread. Good post about making sure every driver notifies every other driver in the household if they just updated the firmware.