[HN Gopher] Tesla Admits Current 'Full Self-Driving Beta' Will A...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Tesla Admits Current 'Full Self-Driving Beta' Will Always Be Level
       2
        
       Author : samizdis
       Score  : 132 points
       Date   : 2021-03-08 20:10 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.thedrive.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.thedrive.com)
        
       | jack_riminton wrote:
       | Beta = hands-on until it becomes not Beta
       | 
       | They're clearly trying to get as far as possible (data flywheel)
       | until they absolutely have to get authorisation from the
       | regulators.
       | 
       | This is just lawyers doing lawyer stuff. Of course Tesla are
       | aiming for complete automation.
        
       | theluketaylor wrote:
       | I have a 2021 model 3 and autopilot is a really bad driver.
       | Teenager learning to drive with poor habits bad.
       | 
       | I went for a 500km+ drive on Sunday to visit new supercharger
       | locations (it's been a long pandemic and I'm pretty bored). It
       | was mostly rural highways without lane separation or limited
       | access. These are some of the most dangerous roads to drive on
       | since there is direct oncoming and cross traffic. Speed limits
       | are 80 km/hr, but the prevailing traffic flows at just under 100
       | km/hr, so closing speeds are around 200 km/hr.
       | 
       | I hardly ever turn on autopilot since it's just bad at driving,
       | but there were long stretches of completely straight roads with
       | multiple minutes passing between oncoming vehicles. Even in that
       | specific circumstances Autopilot made some truly weak decisions
       | about its basic driving style.
       | 
       | It attached to the centreline between lanes which limited the gap
       | with oncoming traffic. When I drive myself in the same
       | circumstances I attach to the outside of the lane to maximize the
       | space I can give oncoming cars. With the amount of room autopilot
       | was giving even a small twitch or moment of distraction would be
       | enough for disaster. If the event was timed poorly enough even a
       | computer system would have no chance to react in time to
       | physically manoeuvre the car out of the way.
       | 
       | Autopilot makes no accommodation for blind spots. When traffic is
       | flowing at full speed on limited access or other multiple lane
       | highways I adjust my relative position with other vehicles to
       | ensure I'm never spending long periods of time in another
       | driver's blind spot. If we're travelling the same speed I create
       | a gap to ensure a quick lane change won't result in contact.
       | Autopilot will continue along completely oblivious and no taking
       | good defensive driving precautions.
       | 
       | There is a youtube channel featuring collision footage from Tesla
       | onboard cameras. Nearly every collision when autopilot is engaged
       | is a situation that never would have occurred in the hands of a
       | skilled driver who anticipates issues and prevents dangerous
       | situations from every occurring. Without knowing the specific
       | collision that's about to happen in the video in most cases I can
       | see a dangerous situation starting to develop I would have
       | reacted to seconds before the collision actually occurs.
        
         | w0m wrote:
         | > Without knowing the specific collision that's about to happen
         | in the video in most cases I can see a dangerous situation
         | starting to develop I would have reacted to seconds before the
         | collision actually occurs.
         | 
         | But you tend to know a collision is coming. Most accidents are
         | due to people being comfortable and not being as alert as they
         | should be; your example is the opposite.
         | 
         | AP is currently ~good on highway (probably safer than I am in
         | good weather), but Meh elsewise. Hopefully it continues to
         | improve; but it will be awhile still i think; and iffy to ever
         | get there on our current Teslas.
        
           | theluketaylor wrote:
           | fair enough on the anticipation, but when I have let
           | autopilot take over it has often been only seconds before I'm
           | already uncomfortable with the decisions it's making and
           | spotting the really rookie driving mistakes it makes.
           | 
           | autopilot creates danger where none needed to exist by not
           | using the full width of the lane and failing to create space
           | through relative small speed adjustments. The cues it gives
           | off while driving are some of the exact things I watch for
           | when trying to identify beginning drivers so I can give them
           | even more space.
           | 
           | I certainly would not describe autopilot as 'good' on
           | highways. I'd barely call it adequate.
        
         | rainyMammoth wrote:
         | That is my conclusion as well. I have tried Autopilot and it's
         | basically as good and useful as any modern lane steering and
         | cruise control system out there.
        
       | tesla_fan_88 wrote:
       | We all have reasons to be cynical towards Elon, but what yo don't
       | realize is I'm sending this comment over a Starlink connection
       | that has made me rethink what my future could be. Living in a
       | rural area, I was always under the impression that I'd need to
       | move to the city and get a fiber connection eventually. With
       | Starlink, that's not a concern any longer. My latency is rock-
       | solid at <50ms and download speeds are more than capable as well.
       | 
       | Obviously Elon isn't entirely responsible for it, but I'm
       | constantly impressed by his initiative in tech world. If Starlink
       | weren't available, I'd be waiting 3+ years for Apple to build
       | some sort of similar service.
        
       | gzu wrote:
       | @plainsite doing the real dirty work here
        
       | jeffbee wrote:
       | The incredible thing about the whole "FSD Beta" phenomenon is how
       | many members of the public are willfully participating in the
       | pump-and-dump. I just can't figure out if they are hypnotized,
       | brainwashed, or just never had any critical thinking skills to
       | begin with.
       | 
       | Take for example this well-known youtuber, AI DRIVR. This guy
       | drives around in his Tesla talking about how amazing and mind-
       | blowing it is, but if you mute him and just watch the video with
       | a critical eye you can see that the software simply does not
       | work. It should be outlawed immediately before it kills someone.
       | He recently rampaged through my town of Berkeley, California,
       | breaking five laws per minute (aside from the fact that he has
       | the speed controls set 5 MPH above the limit at all times).
       | 
       | Here's his car running a stop sign:
       | https://youtu.be/SNT5MzjAAms?t=219
       | 
       | Here it runs a red light, which the narrator takes pains to
       | explain away. https://youtu.be/SNT5MzjAAms?t=238
       | 
       | Here it turns right from the center lane:
       | https://youtu.be/SNT5MzjAAms?t=523
       | 
       | Here it violates the right-of-way of a car that it incorrectly
       | classified as parked. https://youtu.be/SNT5MzjAAms?t=762
       | 
       | At numerous points in the video, it signals for a right turn
       | while going straight. https://youtu.be/SNT5MzjAAms?t=806
       | 
       | Here it signals left while going straight:
       | https://youtu.be/SNT5MzjAAms?t=898
       | 
       | Absolutely unacceptable. The government should act against this
       | junk.
        
         | snypher wrote:
         | His explanation for the red light is "the front wheels were in
         | the intersection before it turned red". I'm pretty sure it
         | could have stopped on the amber, as required.
        
       | reissbaker wrote:
       | This is a gotcha headline that is contradicted by one of the
       | quotes from Tesla they list in their own article:
       | 
       |  _Please note that Tesla's development of true autonomous
       | features (SAE Levels 3+) will follow our iterative process
       | (development, validation, early release, etc.) and any such
       | features will not be released to the general public until we have
       | fully validated them and received any required regulatory permits
       | or approvals._
       | 
       | TL;DR: Tesla does not want their upcoming release of FSD Beta to
       | be considered to be above Level 2, and their lawyers are
       | submitting documents to California saying that it shouldn't be
       | considered above Level 2 and thus they shouldn't have to apply
       | for special permits in California to release it. They continue to
       | work on autonomous driving features.
        
       | goatherders wrote:
       | He's such a good marketer. There is a case to be made that he's
       | participating (often) in fraud to pump up the stock price, but
       | people keep buying it so...whatever.
        
         | goatherders wrote:
         | 3 downvotes? LOL, don't ever change HN.
        
         | jeffbee wrote:
         | Nevermind the pump and dump, which has been right out in the
         | open for years. What about selling people a $10000 option that
         | doesn't work?
        
       | mytailorisrich wrote:
       | Honda has just unveiled their first certified level 3 car,
       | beating Tesla to it.
        
         | fastball wrote:
         | Level 2 vs 3 is more a regulatory distinction than a
         | technological one.
         | 
         | Teslas have a summon feature which is kinda level 4.
         | 
         | In summary: the driving autonomy level system kinda sucks.
        
       | perardi wrote:
       | Musk's reality distortion field must visibly bend light. He
       | manages to accomplish so much, but also manages to peddle a lot
       | of absolute monorail-level bullshit.
       | 
       | https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a35350331/checking-in-on-a...
       | 
       |  _(Still hoping for that super-tunnel to take me to O'Hare once
       | flying is back up to full speed.)_
        
         | api wrote:
         | It's because of the former that he is able to command the
         | latter.
         | 
         | Musk isn't super-human. He's a good engineer with great
         | intuition for how to solve hard problems and a good "first
         | principles" approach. He also has a great work ethic. There are
         | tons of Elon Musks around.
         | 
         | What's rare is people as visionary and competent as him who are
         | also rich and well-connected. Having someone who actually knows
         | something in a position to make decisions about the allocation
         | of large amounts of capitol yields results so amazing that they
         | appear super-human, which buys him a hell of a reality
         | distortion field and a lot of slack for being eccentric.
         | 
         | Musk got rich more or less by accident. The systems that
         | advance people to those heights select for competence in the
         | areas of social and financial advancement, not practical
         | engineering or creativity, hence his rarity.
         | 
         | Of course today it's probably better than it ever has been in
         | all of history. Historically the way to wealth and power was to
         | brainwash a large number of people into killing (and risking
         | their lives) for you and then sitting back and reaping the
         | reward. That's still a thing, but at least now there are other
         | routes.
        
         | mensetmanusman wrote:
         | https://youtu.be/5uqpA3beAhc
         | 
         | I used to think like you, then I see these driverless
         | demonstrations and negotiated left turns with zero user
         | interaction.
         | 
         | I have this feeling that we will be surprised like we were when
         | AlphaGO won...
        
           | arithmomachist wrote:
           | Being able to steer the car effectively is only one part of
           | an enormously complex engineering problem. A fully autonomous
           | vehicle would need to:
           | 
           | 1. Be robust to bad visibility, not an easy task in computer
           | vision.
           | 
           | 2. Have access to extremely detailed maps that include things
           | like driveways and parking lots. These maps would need to be
           | continuously updated. The labor required to make and maintain
           | such maps will limit how many places cars can be fully
           | autonomous.
           | 
           | 3. Understand the etiquette of the road. For example, a
           | person seeing a car stop in the street near a parking spot
           | would assume the car is about to parallel park and give it
           | room to pull off the maneuver. An autonomous vehicle wouldn't
           | give it so much room, because it can't reason about context
           | in that way.
           | 
           | 4. Negotiate ambiguous situations requiring interaction with
           | other drivers. There are frequently situations where it's not
           | clear who has the right of way from the rules of the road.
           | People resolve these by gesturing with their hands and with
           | their cars. A fully autonomous vehicle would need to
           | understand these signals.
        
         | bob33212 wrote:
         | He has been pretty honest that predicting the maximum of a
         | derivative of an S-curve is very hard.
        
         | dheera wrote:
         | Personally I think he understands everything. The problem is
         | the stock market and SEC which set up laws that encourage and
         | incentivize bullshitting. Everything from letting a free market
         | full of idiots to determine prices, to quarterly earnings
         | reports, is set up to encourage every form of BS.
         | 
         | If we want to optimize for reducing bullshit, the stock market
         | and rules around it need to be restructured.
        
         | fastball wrote:
         | That article has very TSLAQ-type vibes, and in fact links to
         | two TSLAQ sites at the bottom.
         | 
         | None of which are honest about how things have progressed.
        
           | perardi wrote:
           | I...don't even know what TSLAQ is, but, where's that
           | Hyperloop, battery swapping, and robotaxi?
        
             | fastball wrote:
             | TSLAQ is a coordinated effort by TSLA short-sellers to
             | generate as much bad press about Tesla as possible in order
             | to tank the price and make money on their short positions.
             | 
             | Ensuring said bad press is _accurate /fair_ is certainly
             | not the primary goal.
             | 
             | Disclaimer: I don't own any TSLA stock.
        
             | crazypython wrote:
             | > TSLAQ is a loose, international[1] collective of largely
             | anonymous short-sellers,[2] skeptics, and researchers who
             | openly criticize Tesla, Inc. and its CEO, Elon Musk.[3] The
             | group primarily organizes on Twitter, often using the
             | $TSLAQ cashtag,[4] and Reddit[5] to coordinate efforts and
             | share news, opinions, and analysis about the company and
             | its stock.
             | 
             | > Tesla Ticker Symbol + "Q" which is the NASDAQ notation
             | for bankruptcy
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSLAQ
        
           | rainyMammoth wrote:
           | Ah yes because any voiced criticism of Tesla must be rooted
           | into big short money.
        
         | amelius wrote:
         | Musk is just a brand created by investors to secure their
         | investments.
        
       | Hypocritelefty wrote:
       | Tesla shills here are good at turning fraud in to saving the
       | planet.
        
       | Hypocritelefty wrote:
       | Tesla shills lol
        
       | cogman10 wrote:
       | Not really surprising if you've been following the beta progress.
       | I doubt Tesla will move past level 2 until they are at a point
       | where Level 4 or 5 is possible.
       | 
       | With that said, I have real doubts that they can get their with
       | the current camera suite. IMO, they don't have enough redundancy.
       | Further, I think elon's anti-lidar position is a mistake. Even if
       | they can make it without lidar, I think it will set them behind
       | the rest of the industry.
       | 
       | Likely, we will see something where they collect enough training
       | data to hit level 4 + training suite and eventually they'll
       | release cars with new sensor suites. Once that happens, my bet is
       | that's when they'll actually release level 4 capabilities. I
       | highly doubt any current car will ever allow hands off driving.
        
         | perardi wrote:
         | Something I've been curious about with computer-vision-only
         | versus LIDAR: snow.
         | 
         | Now, I am naive about the real intricacies of computer vision.
         | But won't snow be quite nasty for camera-only systems? It's
         | almost the physical definition of noise, as it's random and
         | reflective. Is there any research or experience with computer
         | vision and dealing with a snowstorm? Because even human drivers
         | aren't great in that kind of low-vision scenario.
         | 
         |  _(Why yes, I did grow up in the Midwest.)_
        
           | artursapek wrote:
           | I think the argument is that if a human with two eyeballs can
           | do it, a computer with a bunch of cameras should be able to
           | as well. I can drive in the snow.
        
             | alacombe wrote:
             | > I can drive in the snow
             | 
             | More often than not, snow driving is _CHALLENGING_. And it
             | 's not for a lack of experience, as I'm doing multiple
             | roadtrips through the BC Coquihalla Highway. More often
             | than now, it's more of a matter of best attempt at driving
             | in the path made by other car disregarding lines on the
             | road than driving by the book. The utter HELL being driving
             | at night with a blizzard, _this_ is a level-up experience
             | for sure.
        
             | perardi wrote:
             | That's...a supposition more than an argument.
        
               | fastball wrote:
               | How is that not an argument?
               | 
               | A human can drive in the snow, and has a sensing package
               | which effectively consists of two cameras.
               | 
               | The hard part (when you only have two cameras) is that
               | the _processor_ needs to be exceedingly sophisticated,
               | e.g. a human brain.
               | 
               | People like Waymo have decided the best way to decrease
               | the brain requirement is to add more sophisticated
               | sensing that humans are fundamentally incapable of.
               | 
               | Tesla's strategy is more to just build a better digital
               | driving brain with machine learning + lots of miles,
               | because arguably all sensing mechanisms have their
               | shortcomings. That being said, they still have a lot more
               | than two cameras in their FSD package - just not LIDAR.
               | They still have radar and other things as well.
               | 
               | Only time will tell which approach is better. Probably in
               | the end the best approach will be to combine the two: a
               | brain that is sophisticated enough it can drive with just
               | cameras, but you throw LIDAR and such in their too to go
               | the extra mile.
        
               | Skunkleton wrote:
               | > A human can drive in the snow, and has a sensing
               | package which effectively consists of two cameras.
               | 
               | Two cameras, and a huge amount of mostly not understood
               | wetware interpreting their signals. Our current
               | approaches to ML may be a local maxima. The true path to
               | AGI be somewhere as yet undiscovered. Lidar certainly
               | seems like a good tool to use given our current ML
               | capabilities.
        
             | hilbertseries wrote:
             | This is a terrible argument. You're basically saying that
             | computers can do anything humans can, which so far has not
             | been the case.
        
               | Dylan16807 wrote:
               | Not "anything". Just taking noisy camera data and turning
               | it into a de-noised picture.
        
               | jsight wrote:
               | Saying that computer vision can view the world with snow
               | present is hardly the same as claiming that computers can
               | do literally anything a human can.
               | 
               | On the contrary, having computer vision capable of
               | handling snow is a necessary precondition for self-
               | driving, regardless of what other sensors are present.
        
             | grumple wrote:
             | Humans certainly do drive in the snow, but not well. I've
             | driven without being able to see the road (very slowly).
             | This is not a safe situation. This is actually a case where
             | I think computers (with LIDAR or other advanced sensors)
             | will be able to outperform humans and it won't be close. I
             | agree with the posters that say the anti-LIDAR stance is
             | not going to work out in the long run.
        
               | AlotOfReading wrote:
               | Musk is not only anti-LIDAR, he's anti-HD mapping.
               | Imagine if you had a centimeter-accurate map overlaid on
               | your windscreen. You'd probably be able to operate the
               | vehicle right up to the limits of the conditions. It
               | definitely won't be close in many situations.
        
           | andy_ppp wrote:
           | How fast do humans drive in heavy snow? I think most people
           | drive extremely slowly to allow themselves to filter out the
           | snow noise by taking in more frames, this will be possible
           | with AI too.
           | 
           | It's worth noting there are many accidents caused by people
           | driving in snow and that AI could be hugely safer at some
           | point.
           | 
           | And also having to drive manually when it is snowing is
           | probably fine for v1.
           | 
           | I would worry more about bicycles, they can be extremely
           | tricky if the rider doesn't understand how to explain their
           | presence on the road to drivers.
        
             | mjevans wrote:
             | I drive slower in the snow because of limited traction and
             | the dangers of other drivers around me.
             | 
             | If I had some button that made spikes or another traction
             | method pop out of my tires and gave me great grip I
             | probably would drive full speed in the snow; because the
             | main issue would have been solved.
        
           | jsight wrote:
           | Its a hard problem, but LIDAR has similar issues. Snow can
           | cause noise for other sensors as well. In each case it seems
           | like these issues are not insurmountable.
           | 
           | I don't expect that any self-driving systems will start out
           | with handling all weather conditions. Even in the long term
           | they may handle fewer conditions than humans.
        
       | NickM wrote:
       | Article is misleading. Tesla sent a letter to the CA DMV
       | requesting approval for a feature which they referred to as "City
       | Streets" which they say is level 2, and will continue to be level
       | 2 as it is developed. They specifically say _in this very
       | document_ that they _will_ develop higher levels of autonomy in
       | the future, so it 's pretty clear that the "final release of City
       | Streets will continue to be level 2" quote is just referring to
       | the particular subset of functionality that they're seeking
       | approval for.
       | 
       | From the very same letter, there is also this quote:
       | 
       |  _Please note that Tesla's development of true autonomous
       | features (SAE Levels 3+) will follow our iterative process
       | (development, validation, early release, etc.) and any such
       | features will not be released to the general public until we have
       | fully validated them and received any required regulatory permits
       | or approvals._
        
         | ra7 wrote:
         | "City Streets" is part of "Full Self Driving" $10,000 package
         | though. They are calling it "Full Self Driving", but a subset
         | of functionality will always be level 2? And the FSD Beta is
         | also level 2 because it only works on city streets? That seems
         | clearly misleading.
         | 
         | What's next? "Really, truly full self driving" that's actually
         | level 3+?
        
           | Dylan16807 wrote:
           | > They are calling it "Full Self Driving", but a subset of
           | functionality will always be level 2?
           | 
           | Well, yes? That's how subsets work.
           | 
           | Thought experiment, pretend "City Streets" was called "Level
           | 2 Mode". Would you be upset that "Level 2 Mode" will always
           | be level 2? Or that "Level 2 Mode" is a subset of "Full Self
           | Driving"?
        
             | Traster wrote:
             | I'd be upset that level 2 mode was released 3 years after
             | they promised level 5 would be ready.
        
             | ra7 wrote:
             | > Thought experiment, pretend "City Streets" was called
             | "Level 2 Mode".
             | 
             | That would be an accurate name for "city streets". Except
             | currently, it's part of an umbrella feature called "full
             | self driving" that's supposedly going to be "level 5" soon.
             | This is it with most things with FSD. Qualifiers after
             | qualifiers for a clearly misleading name.
        
           | throw0101a wrote:
           | > _" Really, truly full self driving" that's actually level
           | 3+?_
           | 
           | Prediction:
           | 
           | * Ridiculous Self Driving
           | 
           | * Ludicrous(+) Self Driving
           | 
           | * Plaid Self Driving
        
           | grumple wrote:
           | These are incremental releases of gradually improving
           | functionality. Their plan is to get to level 3+.
           | 
           | People who buy it know what they are getting, and if they
           | don't, it's entirely willful ignorance. I don't even own a
           | Tesla yet I've read plenty about the actual capabilities and
           | the fact that these cars can't truly drive themselves.
        
           | dheera wrote:
           | I always assumed by "full" they meant that it doesn't just do
           | autopilot on highways, but is capable of handling local
           | roads, traffic lights, stop signs, as well. Basically it can
           | drive from local address A to local address B assuming good
           | conditions.
           | 
           | I'm a robotics person though so it was always pretty clear to
           | me that I couldn't possibly think of being able to deploy an
           | L4 system with their set of sensors.
        
             | ra7 wrote:
             | When you call it "full" and "self driving", I don't know
             | how many qualifiers you can attach to it. I know it's not
             | anywhere close to driving by itself, but between the naming
             | and Elon Musk constantly talking about how level 5 (I mean,
             | level 5 is the ultimate form of autonomous driving) is just
             | around the corner, it's pretty easy to see that as
             | misleading customers. All while they don't even bother to
             | get a driverless testing permit from CA DMV.
        
               | dheera wrote:
               | Yeah, of course. But it was always clear to me.
               | 
               | The problem is (a) the stock market is full of idiots
               | that won't listen to real engineers like us, and listen
               | to some bullshitty CEOs and analysts instead (b) the SEC
               | and stock market is perfectly optimized and incentivized
               | to maximize the amount of marketing bullshit coming out
               | of company PR.
               | 
               | If people wanted more honestly worded things out of
               | companies, we need to stop nailing companies every time
               | they don't "beat" earnings estimates every quarter, and
               | begin to understand how real science and real
               | technological advancement happens.
               | 
               | The way NASA is funded, for example, is the exact
               | opposite, and minimizes bullshit, but NASA and Tesla
               | share a lot in common in terms of what they're trying to
               | accomplish for humanity.
               | 
               | EDIT: Okay maybe NASA wasn't a good example. But in any
               | case, the current structure of public companies and
               | letting a bunch of gullible <strike>sheep</strike>
               | average citizens collectively determine the value of a
               | company based on what a bunch of <strike>clowns</strike>
               | non-engineers in suits at Wall Street try to make of a
               | highly technical venture isn't a system optimized for
               | minimizing bullshit, it's quite the opposite.
        
               | nickik wrote:
               | > The problem is (a) the stock market is full of idiots
               | that won't listen to real engineers like us
               | 
               | So you are a real engineer and Musk is not?
               | 
               | > begin to understand how real science and real
               | technological advancement happens
               | 
               | By pushing for it hard, investing your credibility and a
               | lot of man power and resources into it? Like literally
               | what Elon Musk does with all his projects.
               | 
               | > The way NASA is funded, for example, is the exact
               | opposite, and minimizes bullshit
               | 
               | NASA claims nonsense literally all the time. The
               | #JournyToMars under Obama for example.
        
               | dheera wrote:
               | > So you are a real engineer and Musk is not?
               | 
               | Real engineers don't bullshit. Real engineers understand
               | that there is a certain responsibility that comes with
               | people trusting their lives to their engineering skills.
               | Real engineers can give you confidences on everything in
               | hard numbers with data. Real engineers can provide
               | realistic estimates of timelines. Real engineers make
               | mistakes sometimes, admit them candidly, and know
               | perfectly well how to adjust those timelines based on
               | past estimate errors and extrapolate adjusted project
               | timeline estimates with basic math. Real engineers know
               | the limits of systems and how to write spec sheets that
               | describe them accurately. Real engineers don't always
               | know the answer to every question, and know when to say
               | "I don't know".
               | 
               | It's managers, investors, analysts, and sometimes
               | customers who don't want to listen to those
               | extrapolations and estimates and uncertainty. And so many
               | real engineers gradually become increasingly fake,
               | because the other (corrupt) parts of the system spread
               | their toxic thinking into the engineering.
               | 
               | I have a lot of respect for Musk, who was a real
               | engineer, probably REALLY wants to stay a real engineer,
               | and is still mostly an engineer. But he is indeed forced
               | to be a part-time <strike>bullshitter</strike> non-
               | engineer by the system, which demands bullshit by its
               | very incentive structure.
        
               | xiphias2 wrote:
               | For Musk his bullshitting is still nowhere close to the
               | competitors, who said for a long time that they can
               | manufacture millions of electric cars if they really want
               | to.
               | 
               | When I told my friend about self driving Tesla who's a
               | BMW fan, he said that BMW will just sell self driving
               | cars when it's ready.
               | 
               | Really? Without gathering any data? I'd say BMW is the
               | bigger bullshitter. Elon needs to update the computers
               | maybe, but everything else in the cars is ready for self
               | driving im the near future.
        
               | rodgerd wrote:
               | > But it was always clear to me.
               | 
               | So when the CEO went on stage and said cars would be
               | self-delivering via fully autonomous driving it was
               | obvious to you that his statement was a lie?
        
         | loganfrederick wrote:
         | That is where there is a disconnect between the Tesla marketing
         | language and technical language.
         | 
         | They publicly advertise and collect cash for pre-sales of "Full
         | Self Driving". Most Hacker News technologists would reserve a
         | phrase that bold for Levels 4 and 5.
         | 
         | But here they are in writing stating that they are currently
         | only at Level 2.
         | 
         | So a couple core questions around Tesla are:
         | 
         | - Is it acceptable to take pre-orders from the average consumer
         | for a feature that might be 10 years away?
         | 
         | - Is it ethical to use exaggerated marketing speak for specific
         | technical functions (to give a non-Tesla example, this is like
         | when I see companies implementing rule-based decision trees or
         | linear regression and calling their apps "Artificial
         | Intelligence")?
        
           | teleclimber wrote:
           | It's not just technical and marketing, it's legal too. And
           | this article references emails from tesla legal team. So
           | legal is telling dmv that it's L2 so it doesn't have to get
           | permits, but that doesn't mean the tech isn't destined to be
           | L3 when it's fully developed and they are ready to submit
           | themselves to regulatory scrutiny.
        
             | ctvo wrote:
             | Your theory here is they're purposefully downplaying their
             | level of self-driving technology to avoid regulatory
             | processes?
             | 
             | Are they going to keep winking at customers and letting
             | them think it's level 3 so they continue to take their
             | hands off the steering wheel and do other things like
             | countless Youtube videos already capture?
             | 
             | It's a little disturbing how people will jump through so
             | mental hoops to give Tesla the benefit of the doubt.
        
           | oneplane wrote:
           | This disconnect seems to be growing globally, be it
           | marketing, technical or legal.
           | 
           | It seems strange considering the wide availability of
           | information and communication, but apparently there either is
           | no feedback loop back to the people who write like that, or
           | there is but it's mostly positive (be it more sales, less
           | lawsuits or a greater following). At some point the meaning
           | of those words will have hollowed out so much that we can't
           | use them in normal conversation anymore.
        
           | GuB-42 wrote:
           | > this is like when I see companies implementing rule-based
           | decision trees or linear regression and calling their apps
           | "Artificial Intelligence"
           | 
           | AI means so many things that it has become as meaningful as
           | "magic". Some don't consider anything less than human-level
           | an AI (this is also called AGI or strong AI). On the other
           | hand enemy behavior in video games is commonly called "AI"
           | even when it is as simple as pacman ghosts. In the same way
           | that magic can literally mean "impossible" or be applied to
           | card tricks accessible to 5 year olds.
        
             | throwaway8581 wrote:
             | "AI" is ambiguous but "Full Self Driving" has a pretty
             | clear plain meaning. It means that the car is self-driving.
             | Not partially self-driving, not mostly self-driving,
             | _fully_ self-driving.
        
         | Someone1234 wrote:
         | > Tesla sent a letter to the CA DMV requesting approval
         | 
         | Can you cite that? It directly contradicts the linked article
         | which claims that the CA DMV contacted Tesla to clarify if
         | Tesla were testing a vehicle without proper permit.
         | 
         | If Tesla were seeking some kind of approval it makes their
         | email very confusing as Tesla is insisting that they don't need
         | additional permits/approval for the "City Streets" beta.
        
           | choppaface wrote:
           | Here's the letter:
           | https://www.plainsite.org/documents/242a2g/california-dmv-
           | te...
        
             | Someone1234 wrote:
             | That seems to confirm what the article said. The first
             | email appears to be dated December 20, 2019 from the CA DMV
             | to Tesla.
             | 
             | Here's the original email sent to Tesla:
             | 
             | > Subject: Announcement of Full Self Driving Feature.
             | 
             | > Al we've seen press reports that Mr. Musk announced on
             | Twitter that a "Tesla holiday software update has FSD sneak
             | preview..." Many people generally translate "FSD" to be
             | "full self-driving." Is Tesla releasing a full self-driving
             | software update to any California Tesla owners? As you are
             | aware, the deployment of autonomously driven vehicles on
             | public roads in California requires a permit to deploy. At
             | this time Tesla does not have a permit to deploy. Please
             | provide an update on what this announcement for the
             | deployment of the feature means in terms of autonomous
             | operation on public roads in California?
             | 
             | I don't see anywhere where Tesla are seeking approval,
             | quite the opposite in fact. Tesla are saying they shouldn't
             | be required to seek approval for "City Streets."
        
               | choppaface wrote:
               | Oh I see what you're saying. I believe they are "seeking
               | approval" for City Streets ... as a Level 2 product.
               | Likely some discrepancy between what Musk says and what
               | the rest of the company does.
        
               | Someone1234 wrote:
               | They were already approved for Level 2 driving, the DMV
               | is asking if City Streets is level 2 or per Tesla's own
               | statements FSD which they were not permitted for testing.
               | 
               | If "Tesla sent a letter to the CA DMV requesting
               | approval" per the above comment, that would have meant
               | Tesla were trying to get an FSD permit in CA (the
               | opposite of what happened).
        
         | sschueller wrote:
         | Yeah, they just keep moving the carrot. By the time Tesla comes
         | with FSD the current model lines will have reached their end of
         | live and the $6k+ that people paid will be lost with the car.
        
           | adrr wrote:
           | An attorney general from a state will start to go after them
           | if they don't come up FSD any time soon. My guess is the
           | settlement will be that they can carry it forward to another
           | Tesla. No of the features really work with the current FSD
           | like smart summon. And there's probably tens of millions of
           | money poured into a feature that doesn't limit up to
           | expectations.
        
             | rodgerd wrote:
             | If they were performing as their CEO represented, the cars
             | would be have driving themselves cross-country to delivery
             | themselves to customers years ago. The time to have them up
             | about lying what would be delivered and when was a looooong
             | time ago.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | jdxcode wrote:
         | Yeah, the word "current" in the headline is doing some heavy
         | lifting
        
         | choppaface wrote:
         | Cynical take: Tesla GC says "We completely understand and agree
         | that we won't deploy any autonomous vehicle feature without a
         | deployment permit" [
         | https://www.plainsite.org/documents/242a2g/california-dmv-te...
         | ]. Absolutely certain that Tesla won't take liability for city
         | driving unless they absolutely must. Especially when so many
         | Tesla drivers are so open to accepting the liability. If
         | Tesla's competitors (e.g. Waymo etc) launch taxis, then Tesla
         | might change course and do the same. But if Tesla doesn't have
         | to do that, they're going to play a game with California where
         | they get to argue over if their cars are level 2 or actually
         | self-driving or whatever .... all the while Tesla users
         | continue to assume liability and help train Tesla's
         | software.... which is what Tesla really wants to continue as
         | long as possible.
         | 
         | These docs don't really shed light on Tesla's FSD plans so much
         | as they illustrate the lengths to which Tesla will go to skirt
         | regulation and liability. All the chatter and rumors about
         | Tesla FSD just drive more attention and more potential users
         | (trainers) into their pool.
        
         | redis_mlc wrote:
         | > they will develop higher levels of autonomy in the future
         | 
         | Any bozo can make claims about the future.
         | 
         | And you're a bozo for believing them. Do you believe everything
         | you see in writing?
        
       | smoldesu wrote:
       | As cynical as I'd like to be towards Musk, I'm sending this
       | comment over a Starlink connection that has made me rethink what
       | my future could be. Living in a rural area, I was always under
       | the impression that I'd need to move to the city and get a fiber
       | connection eventually. With Starlink, that's no longer a concern.
       | My latency is rock-solid at <50ms and download speeds are pretty
       | capable as well.
       | 
       | Obviously Elon isn't entirely responsible for it, but I'm
       | constantly impressed by his initiative in tech world. If Starlink
       | weren't available, I'd be waiting ~3 years for Amazon to build
       | some sort of equivalent service.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | stanford_labrat wrote:
         | What're your download and upload speeds like?
        
           | olyjohn wrote:
           | Mine gets between 50-150mbps, sometimes 200-300 down. Up is
           | between 20-40 from the tests I have done. Exactly as
           | promised. My ping has gone from 40-60ms, and now is regularly
           | around 20. This was just in a matter of months, and also me
           | fucking with it for hours to try to find the best placement.
           | 
           | I still have the occasional drop out... I can't make it
           | through a video conference, or wifi call without a freeze up
           | or audio drop. My Starlink app says "No obstructions" but
           | also says "Obstructed for 4 minutes" on a regular basis. Many
           | people seem to echo this. I'm not honestly sure if this is
           | what to expect or not.
           | 
           | I generally switch to my 1.5Mbps DSL line for phone calls and
           | video conferences, which lowers the quality a ton, but at
           | least I don't have to ask people to repeat the last 30
           | seconds. Web surfing and downloading large files is blazing
           | fast, and multiple people sharing the link seems to have no
           | impact on the quality. Video streaming is fantastic. Another
           | downside is that you're behind a CGNAT, so you'll never get a
           | public IP address. Then their router puts you behind another
           | NAT...
           | 
           | StarLink is better than nothing for sure. But if Comcast
           | didn't want $25,000 to run 550 feet of cable to my house, I
           | would probably use that instead. I now have to call in an
           | arborist or someone and top some trees that I am guessing are
           | causing temporary obstructions, but I'm not really sure. I
           | have a lot of trees on my property.
        
         | tyingq wrote:
         | Curious if what you're seeing for data speeds matches what they
         | say on their FAQ page. Your latency is just past what they are
         | promising, which I suppose is not terrible.
         | 
         |  _" users can expect to see data speeds vary from 50Mb/s to
         | 150Mb/s and latency from 20ms to 40ms"_
         | 
         | https://www.starlink.com/faq
        
           | Kye wrote:
           | They probably have a disclaimer somewhere in the contract
           | saying the guarantee doesn't include latency added by the
           | user's computer or network interface.
        
             | tyingq wrote:
             | Yeah, I'm not even sure if it means round trip latency.
        
         | pomian wrote:
         | Not to distract from original post, but! What download speeds
         | are you getting? Do you suffer from throttling, for example of
         | more people are connecting at the same time? Are there high and
         | lows during the day? Our invitation arrived and we are tempted,
         | but it seems very expensive.
        
         | TinkersW wrote:
         | You either have a fan named tesla_fan_88, who reposted the
         | exact same comment, or are some kind of robo?
         | 
         | tesla_fan_88 is brand new so I think maybe they stole your
         | msg..
        
         | sschueller wrote:
         | Watching the stark difference between the rover on mars and
         | Musks starship experiments I have little faith that starship
         | will ever be realized. Elon over promises and under delivers
         | almost every time.
        
         | rsj_hn wrote:
         | Having a strong reality distortion field is a necessary, but
         | not sufficient condition to be a great innovator. You have to
         | have some crazy ideas (landing a rocket!) and be able to
         | convince people to invest with you or work for you. But no one
         | bats 1000, and Musk's obsession with "autonomous" things,
         | whether evil AI overlords or self-driving cars, tends to be his
         | weak spot.
        
         | johnfn wrote:
         | I wouldn't trade one CEO working on actual important problems,
         | like automobile deaths, global warming, space travel and
         | universal internet access for a hundred CEOs working on the
         | next social media startup or crypto idea. No matter how many
         | stupid jokes he makes about "$420.69" on Twitter or whatever,
         | he's had so much more quantifiable impact on the world.
        
           | m463 wrote:
           | I think the "$420.69" jokes are a sort of biomarker.
           | 
           | Sort of like self-deprecating humor might not be the entire
           | picture of mental health, but a sign that it is probably ok.
        
           | sabhiram wrote:
           | Hmm, he certainly is working on automobile deaths by
           | releasing this nonsense, and giving unsuspecting masses
           | confidence that they should not have.
        
         | anonporridge wrote:
         | I'm dubious that Starlink will really be all that great once it
         | really scales up to tons of users. It's not surprising that
         | it's great for a limited beta run.
         | 
         | Driving on a highway is an amazing experience when it's mostly
         | empty, and a nightmare in rush hour traffic.
         | 
         | Has there been any good write up about how well Starlink (or
         | any other satellite internet) could feasibly scale? Even if
         | SpaceX can start dumping tons of satellites for dirt cheap with
         | Starship's economy of scale, surely there's a limit where the
         | risk of a Kessler syndrome event makes further expansion
         | impractical.
        
       | noodle wrote:
       | Is any of this shocking or contrary to what's already been said
       | in public? You could summarize the whole article like this:
       | 
       | Tesla intends on building a great L2 system, releasing it
       | publicly, and then moving on to L3 afterwards.
        
         | kmonsen wrote:
         | I don't think so, and I think level 3 is an error and should
         | never be there. I think most will go from 2->4. L3 is just
         | requiring human concentration that is impossible.
         | 
         | That being said I agree with the spirit of your comment.
        
           | Dylan16807 wrote:
           | Level 3 requires that a human be available to take control in
           | a certain amount of time.
           | 
           | Whether that's a mistake depends on how long that amount of
           | time it.
           | 
           | For example, 10 seconds is perfectly safe. It's fine to
           | completely ignore the road until you hear the beep, because
           | 10 seconds is plenty of time to look around and figure out
           | the situation and take control.
           | 
           | I would argue that any system that requires constant human
           | concentration is not actually level 3.
           | 
           | Level 2 is the one that's dangerous by design.
           | 
           | Edit: Though since the main difference between level 3 and
           | level 4 is the ability to pull over, I wouldn't be surprised
           | if level 3 gets quickly left behind or skipped entirely by
           | many developers.
        
       | babelfish wrote:
       | As long as Musk continues to insist that Tesla doesn't need
       | Lidar, their self-driving technology will always be a level lower
       | than Waymo/Cruise/etc
        
         | fastball wrote:
         | Humans don't need LIDAR.
        
           | emkoemko wrote:
           | why would we want cars that drive like humans? i want a car
           | the drives better then humans.
        
             | fastball wrote:
             | Yes, hence the sensing package that has more than two
             | cameras.
             | 
             | LIDAR is not mandatory for better driving than humans.
        
           | rainyMammoth wrote:
           | I cannot believe that smart people still repeat that
           | argument.
           | 
           | Until you have something like the human brain powering the
           | car you cannot just use "two eyes"
        
             | fastball wrote:
             | Cannot believe you think Teslas only have two eyes.
        
           | sschueller wrote:
           | Humans make mistakes. FSD has to be better than humans.
        
             | fastball wrote:
             | Tesla has more than just two cameras in their FSD package.
        
           | qeternity wrote:
           | The whole point of autonomous driving is to surpass human
           | levels of ability.
           | 
           | Computers don't (yet) have the hardware nor software of a
           | human brain. So they better come with extra tricks, like
           | lidar.
        
           | fundatus wrote:
           | humans also have brains with an amount of computing power
           | thats far greater than whats currently available, let alone
           | in a tesla car.
        
             | alacombe wrote:
             | Not to mention that disregarding driving rules to get out
             | of exceptional situation is acceptable to a human.
        
       | Hypocritelefty wrote:
       | Fraud Karen sells vapurware but Tesla shills in here are oh but
       | he is saving the planet. The fuckers who fall for this shit
       | deserve everybit of it.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-03-08 23:01 UTC)