Cyclist Hit & Killed by a Tesla in the UK

[MattTuck]

I know we discussed Tesla and their autopilot before, so this seemed relevant, if still a tragedy.

Still investigating whether autopilot was engaged.

http://road.cc/content/news/232332-d...lear-if-it-was

[Tickdoc]

oof. I worry about this with just lane assist.

[Kontact]

Does lane assist have trouble seeing cyclists?

Human drivers certainly seem to have trouble seeing cyclists.

[marciero]

As always, Tragic. Also disturbing to read the claims/estimates of poor performance classifying objects- 1% of cyclists, 30% of cars- from the Stanford robotics researchers in the linked article. My thinking has always been that self-driving cars will make the roads safer.

[BobO]

Originally Posted by marciero

As always, Tragic. Also disturbing to read the claims/estimates of poor performance classifying objects- 1% of cyclists, 30% of cars- from the Stanford robotics researchers in the linked article. My thinking has always been that self-driving cars will make the roads safer. But getting ahead of myself. We dont know if auto-pilot was engaged.

Engineering of the "new" always requires some real world testing to fine tune the parameters of the designs. There's always something there that you can't accurately predict until exposed to actual conditions. This is part of the reason why the large automakers have off-road test facilities. Although lately with many different products it appears that the end users are becoming the beta testers.

[tuscanyswe]

Originally Posted by BobO

Engineering of the "new" always requires some real world testing to fine tune the parameters of the designs. There's always something there that you can't accurately predict until exposed to actual conditions. This is part of the reason why the large automakers have off-road test facilities. Although lately with many different products it appears that the end users are becoming the beta testers.

Hey its only lives

[ultraman6970]

If the idiot was playing or looking at the phone at that minute... of course the driver was going to have problems looking at the road.

Originally Posted by Kontact

Does lane assist have trouble seeing cyclists?

Human drivers certainly seem to have trouble seeing cyclists.

[BobO]

Originally Posted by tuscanyswe

Hey its only lives

There's always going to be a failure rate. The objective of engineering and testing is to bring that failure rate within acceptable tolerances, which again, is greater than zero. They question here is, has Tesla narrowed their failure rate acceptably prior to unleashing their product into the wild? If not, the ramifications in terms of liability could be quite extreme.

[zetroc]

I'm not interested in participating in an experiment that could cost me my life without giving my consent.

[pasadena]

...

[makoti]

Originally Posted by Kontact

Does lane assist have trouble seeing cyclists?

Human drivers certainly seem to have trouble seeing cyclists.

A link in the article: http://road.cc/content/news/230853-s...asses-cyclists

It appears that it will fight the driver trying to give enough room. Wonderful.

[Kontact]

Originally Posted by makoti

A link in the article: http://road.cc/content/news/230853-s...asses-cyclists

It appears that it will fight the driver trying to give enough room. Wonderful.

The article indicates it is a Tesla problem, rather than universal to all vehicles with lane assist.

[makoti]

Originally Posted by Kontact

The article indicates it is a Tesla problem, rather than universal to all vehicles with lane assist.

"A recent review of the BMW G32 640iGT 2017 by Honest John (link is external) reveals that when set to semi-autonomously follow road markings, the car will force drivers to execute close passes of cyclists unless they use their indicator."

Not only Tesla.

[shovelhd]

As I've said all along, I will bet that the logic in these systems will prioritize protecting the occupants at all costs. If comes down to Hal .vs. something in the way, a cyclist is no different than a squirrel, turkey, or possum.

[Vientomas]

"Progress" will dictate that cyclists will be categorized as road hazards and will no longer be allowed to utilize roadways. Robotic vehicle trumps (no pun intended) humanoid cyclist. Hope ya'll have a nice MUT system nearby.