Tesla driver using autopilot killed in crash

I read that this morning, sounds like a sharp guy. Rest in Peace, Joshua Brown.

I have been dubious about these things, first, because the computer giving my daughter directions, while in the Rockies, told her to go left, which was over a cliff. Another person, in the news, ended up in a swimming pool when her GPS gave her wrong instructions.

And if they run over you, who you gonna sue? The driver, Tesla, or maybe TSA for allowing them on the road?

And I remember all the wrong instructions coming from the speaker when I visited my cousins in California in '09. But, I take it this present stuff is all way more sophisticated.

Still -
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/no-technology-not-even-teslas-autopilot-can-be-completely-safe/

Me, I'm just not comfy without a human paying attention (I know this is atavistic of me).

Last month seems present to me.

Still, the stats are better. Given the crash circumstance as described somewhere I read, maybe there will be some fix (how, I dunno).

I'm not for driverless cars, take them as creepy as a starter and scary secondly - I'm old school, don't want to change, but I'm reading along, might change my mind at some point.

Just listening to an interview about this. Not the first incident of problems. Interviewee now talking about a case of a Tesla driving at full speed into a car parked/stopped on a highway.

Interviewee (Duke University researcher, M. Cummings, head of robotics lab ) says driver distraction is a problem. Drivers still have to pay attention to the road. The radar technology just isn't there to go fully autonomous per interviewee.

Was listening to the story and an interview 15 minutes ago, in the car.

Said the car and driver didn't recognize the white vehicle against a white sky. It was brought up there are a number of white vehicles on the road.

It was said since this beta model was introduced to the public, people have been doing all kinds of foolish things, as if the car is responsible for everything.

Like this idiot taking a video from the back seat.

Be interesting to see if the reports of the driver watching a DVD at the time are true.

I understand the car not seeing but how did they determine if the dead driver saw it? Especially if he was watching Harry Potter at the time.

Thanks, that's useful.

The human could be relaxing with his or her sixth beer. Or even relaxing sans alcohol or drugs/meds.

I think of little kids back in yore, when we would sometimes approach a
Good Humor Truck.. and kids can really be little. Er, we got our popsicles at the corner store (segue to tangent I won't go on about). I suppose a lot of my worry bits have been studied, but still, kids dart.

Oh wait, I left something out.

Re the Tesla seeing the white vehicle, the question is why didn't the radar pick it up?

The radar doesn't rely on sight.

it's actually a kind of accident we see a fair bit - people driving straight into white / silver transports on really bright days

that was pretty much the point of the interview I listened to
the radar technology's not ready

as the interviewer put it - it was an expensive test drive of the technology

it's the first portion of this CBC podcast

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-friday-edition-1.3658354

I wonder what the safest car color is, if you want to maximize the odds of other drivers seeing your vehicle.

I suppose black would be just as bad at twilight as white is during a bright day.

I have a red car and I would have thought people would see me.

Nope.

Maybe the do see you, and just don't get out of the way quick enough.

I assume that the tesla had an active scan radar system (different frequencies) cause One of the peoblems we had with older boat radars in crowded marinas was that the old "Passive scan" (one frequency at a time) would screw with each others reception and wed get weird maps where(Distance =Time X (c)/2 numbers. It would only last for split seconds and the human eye could pick up the spurious blips, but on a fully autonimous mode, I wonder whether the machines can get confused if there were other radars operating in the vicinity. ACtive scanning helps that, as does two or more receivers where the signals are picked up and "solved" for accuracy by the software.
Trouble with a car, youre going along pretty fast so you could overrun your"weather map" that is on screen and the poor little drive computer may be naking decisions that are a few microseconds too slow