Self-Driving Tesla Cars

So, when I posted the other thread about jobs that would disappear some of you thought that self-driving cars was far off… I pointed out that it is at most 5-10 years… however it could be a lot faster than that… and what do you know it has not even been a year since that thread.. and now here they are!

Here is a video of one irresponsible individual already using one in normal traffic conditions, there are plenty of more people out there ( Please note that I do not support what these people are doing as there are no laws and regulations yet for self-driving cars ):

Last I read there are allready self-dirivin volvoes in Sweden also. You can go for autopilot on specific roads.

"all 2016 XC90s—will engage full self-driving mode and, just as important, how the cars will hand control back to the driver at the end of a robotic journey"

http://blog.caranddriver.com/volvo-details-auto-pilot-feature-for-its-self-driving-feature/

At the cost of brand new 2016 XC90 I would expect nothing less than autopilot. We just bought car of the year 2014 almost not used and even though it has most of the bells and whistles it cost only quarter of what XC90 does. Flagship cars must constantly invent new things to prove their price.

This technology can't come soon enough IMO.

zakhal said:

Last I read there are allready self-dirivin volvoes in Sweden also. You can go for autopilot on specific roads.

"all 2016 XC90s—will engage full self-driving mode and, just as important, how the cars will hand control back to the driver at the end of a robotic journey"

http://blog.caranddriver.com/volvo-details-auto-pilot-feature-for-its-self-driving-feature/

At the cost of brand new 2016 XC90 I would expect nothing less than autopilot. We just bought car of the year 2014 almost not used and even though it has most of the bells and whistles it cost only quarter of what XC90 does. Flagship cars must constantly invent new things to prove their price.

Click to expand...

Yes, Volvo will have it soon, but not available yet for end-customers…. Tesla however is first to give it to end-customers… it can also change lanes and so on.. and works in crowded morning city traffic.. impressive stuff.

GothicGothicness said:

Yes, Volvo will have it soon, but not available yet for end-customers…. Tesla however is first to give it to end-customers… it can also change lanes and so on.. and works in crowded morning city traffic.. impressive stuff.

Click to expand...

Exciting yet a bit dangerous:

That led to dangerous situations and near accidents, as evidenced by videos made by drivers (while driving) and posted to YouTube. In one video, a Model S driver admitted to ignoring warnings until the vehicle automatically swerved over the double-yellow dividing lines toward an oncoming vehicle. “Had I not reacted quickly to jerk the steering wheel in the opposite direction, a devastating head-on collision would have occurred,” he wrote in the YouTube post.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/542651/drivers-push-teslas-autopilot-beyond-its-abilities/

Click to expand...

Only rich people drive teslas and CX90 here in Finland. So I wouldnt expect them to become anything like mainstream for quite a while. Maybe in 10 years that tech is in more affordable cars also.

zakhal said:

Exciting yet a bit dangerous:

Only rich people drive teslas and CX90 here in Finland. So I wouldnt expect them to become anything like mainstream for quite a while. Maybe in 10 years that tech is in more affordable cars also.

Click to expand...

Absolutely, I suspect that it is only a matter of time before there is an accident, and possible lawsuits against Tesla. This might slow down the development. But I don't think it'll take as much as 10 years for this to become mainstream in rich countries. It'll be faster than that for sure.

GothicGothicness said:

So, when I posted the other thread about jobs that would disappear some of you thought that self-driving cars was far off… I pointed out that it is at most 5-10 years… however it could be a lot faster than that… and what do you know it has not even been a year since that thread.. and now here they are!

Here is a video of one irresponsible individual already using one in normal traffic conditions, there are plenty of more people out there ( Please note that I do not support what these people are doing as there are no laws and regulations yet for self-driving cars ):

Click to expand...

That youtube link isn't loading.

Thrasher said:

That youtube link isn't loading.

Click to expand...

[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lFP81TqjRU ]
"This video is private -- If the owner of this video has granted you access, please sign in."

I guess the guy realised it might not have been the best idea in the world to show how irresponsible he is to everyone in the world and removed the video..... well I updated with another one

Yes I think its something special, we just passed a mark. Cars are driving themselves on our roads.

It's quite impressive what Tesla is able to do with that outdated sensory technology. Still, most of it is possible because some key information isn't taken into account (and I am really curious if they manage to include all signs and all kinds of traffic participants even with bad weather conditions and during all times of day).

I agree with the 5-10 years. I'm working at an IT company and we have many people working on exactly that kind of technology at BMW. It's crazy how much money is being poured into that. And that's true for whole automobile industry. E.g. Audi is using a public highway in Germany to test their autonomous drive technology already. Mercedes have autonomous trucks. Volvo, as mentioned above. Then there is other industries that try to jump on the bandwagon, e.g. the telecommunications industry. They have noticed that the huge amount of data their users provide can be useful for mobility solutions. I.e. SwissCom has shown autonomous cars driving through Switzerland, too (although I think they have dropped the whole mobility thing already).

Anyways, now that cars are crammed full of microcontrollers and have become platforms for software, with the whole Internet of Things and car2X-communication thing and cloud solutions being introduced into mobility, high precision GPS, widely available geo data and sensory technology (radar, UV, cameras, lidar) that is getting cheaper by the minute things are about to get rolling. AND the automotive industry has finally come to realize (struggling and kicking left and right) that they cannot remain dominated by engineers entirely - they have opened their doors to software developers. And those, now, have a new playground. (Although BMW is still [luckily] turning down too many damn good sw developers)

There might be mistakes when it comes to self driving cars, but considering in one person's lifetime the chance of dying in a car accident is less than 1 out of 50, I welcome our self driving robot overlords.

Edit: sorry I think it's less than 1 in 300 but still…

There was a big article in The Atlantic about driverless cars a few days ago.

“My older son is 12 years old,” said Chris Urmson, the head of Google’s self-driving car program. “In four years, he gets a driver’s license. We don’t want him to have to.”

Click to expand...

Of course, if you're the son of a Google exec, you might get a crack at a driverless car a tad earlier than the general public, but still…!

New Tesla update! Self garage parking and summoning...

http://jalopnik.com/you-can-now-autonomously-park-and-summon-the-tesla-mode-1752037395

Zloth said:

There was a big article in The Atlantic about driverless cars a few days ago.


Of course, if you're the son of a Google exec, you might get a crack at a driverless car a tad earlier than the general public, but still…!

Click to expand...

Gotta start somewhere. Thats generally the way technology works. We had an espresso machine at our company before they were even sold big stores. Now everyone and their cat has one in their house.

I think its cool that the kid has a chance the more its adopted the quicker it'll drop in price.

Unfortunately it's not going to be as fast as you think. There will be one accident, which the media (as usual) will blow out of proportion, which will set back the initiative because the Government(s) will be pressured to control. Then it'll have to wait for the years of back and forth lawmaking, lobbying, burocracy, etc. I doubt we'll have fully automated vehicles being commonplace in the highways any time soon.

wolfing said:

Unfortunately it's not going to be as fast as you think. There will be one accident, which the media (as usual) will blow out of proportion, which will set back the initiative because the Government(s) will be pressured to control. Then it'll have to wait for the years of back and forth lawmaking, lobbying, burocracy, etc. I doubt we'll have fully automated vehicles being commonplace in the highways any time soon.

Click to expand...

Self-driving cars already had multiple accidents and the studies shows that they have less grave accidents than human driven cars do, but they get crashed into the rear by human driven cars while going at low speed more often.

Lol this is nothing but a pipe dream. Sure they can "drive" on Californian roads with perfect conditions when there is someone behind the wheel and they have no maneuvers that are even slightly hard or unpredictable to perform, but I'd like Tesla to try to run a self-driving car here on a road full of ice, snow and potholes. Never in hell.

There are so many incredible problems associated with it that it's never going to become anything else than a con. Because this is what it is: something used to make shareholders believe that there are "exciting growth opportunities just around the corner", except self-driving cars will be "just around the corner" every year so that the stocks keep going up. This is the only true reason these projects are pursued.

And the question of who is responsible in case of an accident is enough on its own to ascertain that there will never be any self-driving cars used in the mainstream. It's stupid, stupid, stupid to believe otherwise.

Humanity has risen! said:

Lol this is nothing but a pipe dream. Sure they can "drive" on Californian roads with perfect conditions when there is someone behind the wheel and they have no maneuvers that are even slightly hard or unpredictable to perform, but I'd like Tesla to try to run a self-driving car here on a road full of ice, snow and potholes. Never in hell.

There are so many incredible problems associated with it that it's never going to become anything else than a con. Because this is what it is: something used to make shareholders believe that there are "exciting growth opportunities just around the corner", except self-driving cars will be "just around the corner" every year so that the stocks keep going up. This is the only true reason these projects are pursued.

And the question of who is responsible in case of an accident is enough on its own to ascertain that there will never be any self-driving cars used in the mainstream. It's stupid, stupid, stupid to believe otherwise.

Click to expand...

Your older posts didn't think it would get beyond Google's testing facility in California. Tesla is at 95% autonomous now for coast to coast driving. This will also be available standard in their $35k model 3 (before enviro incentives) so it's not just a luxury thing. It's already a hive network of cars sharing data and learning from each other on a daily basis. Ford is already successfully testing their winter weather tech (barely in it's infancy!).

Here's a fellow named Musk who in a few short years collectively beat all other aerospace companies in space travel technology and cost, from an education that consisted of mostly heavy reading…

And then there's random forum complainer 51342…

Hmm, which one is more credible. Such a difficult choice…

I was in a meeting all morning working out custom tooling for parts for some new car Tesla is releasing in 2018. I asked the question today about this post but nothing was said, though this meeting with a sub contractor to make these parts.