Stopping at green lights???
- Thread starter dpodoll
- Start date
- Oct 23, 2012
- 349
- 49
not sure what data they are collecting that requires the car to stop at green lights
destructure00
Active Member
From what I read on Twitter, it's primarily using GPS to know where an intersection is and where it needs to stop. Then it reads the traffic control device to get the why.
Safer to program it to stop at all intersections than to misinterpret a light color and blow through a red, at least until the NN gets good enough. This is all part of managing people from a liability standpoint IMO, and also training the NN.
From a safety perspective, it makes sense to have it default to stopping at every intersection, then only proceeding once it gets confirmation that it's safe. For now, this is a manual input from the driver. In the future it would be reading/seeing the situation using cameras and deciding on it's own. If you think about it, this is not unlike what people should be doing. Approach an intersection prepared to stop, and only proceed if you confirm there's a green light and no other cars in the way.
I'm sure it's more complex than this, but that's my basic understanding.
Stopping in itself is not for data collection, it's for safety/liability: they're not yet feeling good enough about detecting light state to base driving decisions on it. In theory, storing clips containing traffic lights and comparing the detection result to your actions (tell the car to proceed because the light was green or allow it to stop because it was red) should allow them to validate and improve light state detection. I don't know whether they are actually doing this, but I did notice my car uploading several GB to Tesla after every drive with the feature enabled.
- Oct 23, 2012
- 349
- 49
Sounds reasonably. I'm a little confused because mine has reliably detected the correct light state for quite some time. I would understand if it reported back to the mother ship if it ran across a light where it didn't expect one. Still don't understand stopping at green lights.
If the NN isn’t good enough - then it should be developed more in a test environment. Having cars stop themselves at intersections where a light is green isn’t "safe". I’m sure lots of people just want the world to let Tesla’s experiment on the road - but if lots of cars, including ICE, stopped a green lights - you’d all be coming unglued.
destructure00
Active Member
A Tesla stopped at a green light is a failure of the driver to pay attention and maintain control of their vehicle. The feature isn't being forced on anyone....if you don't want it, don't enable it. If drivers using it are paying attention and giving the correct inputs when required, this won't be a problem.
sdmack
Member
Yes, I confirmed that on my test drive of the feature this morning. Our community has several stop signs which are hidden by crests of hills, or curves in the road. Autopilot posted messages informing of stopping at the upcoming traffic control hundreds of feet before it was visible.
Russell
Supporting Member
It's in the release notes... to learn from the fleet. "Over time as we learn from the fleet, the feature will control more naturally."
When you come up to an intersection, you are supposed to press down on the gear selector or press the accelerator to let the car know you do not want to stop.
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