And here, the too-frequently posted excuse that "oh, many humans would have hit that too" is utter nonsense.
In that situation, with light traffic, clear daylight visibility, and wide shoulders, any human who would have hit that is either highly distracted, incompetent, or drunk.
Both driver and passenger saw the object at least 7-8 seconds ahead of time; at 0:00sec the passenger is pointing and they are commenting on the object, at 0:05sec passenger is leaning forward with concern and the Tesla drives over it at 0:08sec. The "Full Self Driving" Tesla didn't even sound any warning until a second AFTER it hit the object.
Any alert half-competent driver would have certainly lifted off the accelerator, started braking and changing lanes in half that time. They didn't because of the expectation the Tesla would take some corrective action β bad assumption.
"My 'Full Self Driving' is as good as a drunk" is not a worthwhile claim.
Worse yet, the entire concept of [it drives and then hands control to the human when it can't handle a situation] is actively dangerous to levels of insanity.
Human perceptual and nervous systems are terrible at tasks requiring vigilance βit is like our brains are evolved for attention to wander. Having a life-critical task that can literally kill you or others ALMOST fully handled autonomously is situation designed for the human to lost attention and situational awareness. Then, demanding in a split second that (s)he immediately become fully oriented, think of a reaction plan, and then execute it, is a recipe for disaster.
In this case, it is even worse. The Tesla itself gave the humans zero warning.
The driver and passenger saw the object well in advance of the Tesla and in in 3-4 times the time and distance it would take to react effectively. But, they had an assumption nothing was wrong because they assumed the Tesla would handle the situation and they were not in a driving mindset, instead waiting to see what the Tesla would do. They were not actively driving the car in the world. Fortunately, the only result was a mangled Tesla β this time.
And here, the too-frequently posted excuse that "oh, many humans would have hit that too" is utter nonsense.
In that situation, with light traffic, clear daylight visibility, and wide shoulders, any human who would have hit that is either highly distracted, incompetent, or drunk.
Both driver and passenger saw the object at least 7-8 seconds ahead of time; at 0:00sec the passenger is pointing and they are commenting on the object, at 0:05sec passenger is leaning forward with concern and the Tesla drives over it at 0:08sec. The "Full Self Driving" Tesla didn't even sound any warning until a second AFTER it hit the object.
Any alert half-competent driver would have certainly lifted off the accelerator, started braking and changing lanes in half that time. They didn't because of the expectation the Tesla would take some corrective action β bad assumption.
"My 'Full Self Driving' is as good as a drunk" is not a worthwhile claim.
Worse yet, the entire concept of [it drives and then hands control to the human when it can't handle a situation] is actively dangerous to levels of insanity.
Human perceptual and nervous systems are terrible at tasks requiring vigilance βit is like our brains are evolved for attention to wander. Having a life-critical task that can literally kill you or others ALMOST fully handled autonomously is situation designed for the human to lost attention and situational awareness. Then, demanding in a split second that (s)he immediately become fully oriented, think of a reaction plan, and then execute it, is a recipe for disaster.
In this case, it is even worse. The Tesla itself gave the humans zero warning.
The driver and passenger saw the object well in advance of the Tesla and in in 3-4 times the time and distance it would take to react effectively. But, they had an assumption nothing was wrong because they assumed the Tesla would handle the situation and they were not in a driving mindset, instead waiting to see what the Tesla would do. They were not actively driving the car in the world. Fortunately, the only result was a mangled Tesla β this time.