It can see dogs! You were worried about that, weren’t you? Now, if it can see the 'roo in the roadside undergrowth that’s about to jump out in front of my vehicle …
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Certainly a worthy goal, but can it tell an emu from a chicken or wedge tailed eagle. Also found on Aussie regional roads. Progress is not without it’s challenges.
One might wonder why Emergency Vehicles are so hard to identify?
Perhaps the problem is not that it’s a Tesla, or an issue with the automation. Is the real problem that Tesla has not vetted it’s owners?
More money than sense, or does Tesla’s lead promoter’s rebellious independence resonate with owners who are also programmed to take unacceptable risks?
Yeah right. And I could probably outdrive Lewis Hamiliton.
How strange that people could reach any conclusion about the question at all. If they had given it more thought 97% (or whatever it is) who have never ridden in or seen an AV in action should have answered “Don’t know”.
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The article is also suggesting Autonomous Cars could be hands free driving mode road legal in the UK by the end of this year, 2021.
Some articles are little more than trashy click bait. Fortunately Drive linked to an article on the possible UK approval of ‘self driving’ cars by the end of this year. It has some interesting restrictions. Only on the nations motorways and only at speeds of up to 60kph stood out. There are some other limitations. If Hamilton is in an autonomous vehicle, not much of a contest? 
I’d like to see them outperform these.
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It suggests that while they have come a long way, the competition was limited to completing a well defined course on an Indy car track.
It needed:
$1M of high tech added to each car. Two of the teams had failures of the tech over a 6 lap time trial.
Were the organisers prepared to have the million dollar vehicles competing directly against each other in a race?
Not this year.
In an oval circuit under controlled conditions…unlikely for some time. By comparison, traditional IndyCar race winners on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway have averaged over 180mph (290km/h) over 200 laps.
What a great outcome! Without innovation and research, this field would not go ahead. While it is only about going around a race track, it is a test and a validation of research developments. Baby steps perhaps, though it is at high speed, and almost nothing comes to full fruit without those learning steps.
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A follow-on from this?
I was rederring to the previous article about British drivers thinking that they can do it better than autonomous tech.
I would like to see the average British driver outperform these vehicles.
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Progress of autonomous vehicles is on a steep learning curve.
In a controlled environment the programming of autonomous tech can leverage the repeatability of the operating environment. The track and car simulators found in gaming or as used by the the real F1 teams demonstrate what can be achieved already.
What’s the driving goal and business model behind autonomous vehicles?
It’s likely just world market domination.
Ask different interest groups why they support the development of autonomous operation of transport/vehicles?
There is a diverse range of differing points of view.
The view on safety is the relative outcome is not an absolute solution. It depends ……
https://www.techopedia.com/are-self-driving-cars-safer-than-cars-driven-by-humans/7/33437
The optimal outcome may only come when the road environment is also upgraded to reduce the variability in conditions. It’s however what some human form drivers keep saying - it’s the roads and not the drivers. Hopefully AI can rise above such elementary thinking.
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The UK drivers making thes claims are correct at this point in time. There isn’t any autonomous system that fully replaces the driver on a road under all the conditions that can be thrown at the driver. In the future, it will be interesting to see if their claims remain correct.
There are situations where autonomous driving has replaced human drivers, mostly to reduce costs or to reduce risk of injury…but these are highly controlled environments (driverless railway, specialist mine equipment).
Putting a car driver with no experience in Indy (type) Cars, and comparing this to an autonomous Indy (type) Car isn’t comparing apples with apples. If this did occur, an inexperienced and unskilled driver of course would be inferior to the autonomous vehicle in the article. While vehicle technologies have been going ahead in leaps and bounds, it is still a fair way off an Indy Car driver on the same track with potentially dozens of Indy Cars travelling up to 200mph+ competing to win a race. In such case, current autonomous technologies would struggle and would be inferior to an professional and highly experienced Indy Car driver.
Which would require every road, something which would not be a significant task and questionable whether it is an effective uses of resources, including taxpayers/consumer’s money. A while ago listening to the head of Volvos autonomy vehicle tech team, they have taken a pragmatic approach. Some roads (very high uniformity intercity motorways) might afford full autonomy the future, but off these main connections the best which is likely to be achieved is partial/semi autonomy. Partial/semi autonomy where vehicles systems cross check driver reponse and intevention, and may take or assist in driver responses to prevent crashes, injury and death.
Some marketing teams in some manufacturers have very optimisic views, but current evidence indicates that they might be over optimistic. Only time will tell, and unlikely to see in any of our lifetimes.
Some of us expect to live much longer. 
Oops.
Some more fantastic Australian research.
The true cause of the following may take some time to come out. It may be a driver error, or something to do with the vehicle, a Tesla Model-3?
As part of the investigation, the French authorities are relying on Tesla to recover and present data from the vehicle. A general observation that is applicable to all vehicles using a level of AI or programmed avoidance. Will this reliance on the manufacturer become unacceptable in the future?
In air crash investigations the black boxes are handed over to a third party and investigators. It’s a step that assures independence from the manufacturer. Aircraft Manufacturers have an interest in learning from incidents and improving their products. Whether automotive manufacturers have the same level of interest in open disclosure and improvement, the history of the automotive industry suggests not always?
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A brave new word is being discussed. Some of the recommendation may be unsettling to many. Putting responsibility and liability on the autonomous vehicle would be a handy way to stop proliferation while not stopping it with other regulations.
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If the car was totally “responsible” for the driving and safety of that driving there would be no need to licence drivers. Every car would be complianced to be autonomous and every year as part of registration they could add the charge for that licence. If a car type was found to be dangerous then the licence/ registration could be easily revoked. No need for testing if the driver was under the influence of any substance, when a driver was blind or had other disabilities that made driving impossible they could still be independent of other transport and once they reached the age when a medical approval was needed currently, no need for even that. Of course as part of the registration process even the state of the firmware, reliability, and and up to date service history could be checked and if found to be not adequate then no approval to be on the road. All this could/should indeed make our roads safer.
Imagine the number of legislative instruments that could be removed off the books once a driver was no longer needed; want to consume alcohol while being ferried from place to place…not an issue, over the speed limit… not the passenger’s fault, fail to stop, fail to indicate, etc etc etc almost all personal liability and responsibility no longer something that needs reams of Laws to regulate.
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I thought the future was flying cars, with no need to use the roads at all.
And since flying cars are no longer cars but some form of air transport, ATSB regulations, registration and annual licensing requirements would apply. No more road rules ever! 
Note: All weather ratings required. Slightly more complex than programming a Tesla to not drive through flood waters.
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