One of the biggest obstacles, figuratively, facing self-driving cars is the ability to expect the unexpected, quickly identify potential issues, and responded in a well-reasoned manner to prodookly to prode. Outcome. One of the biggest obstacles, literally, facing self-Dr. Driving cars are giant wile e. Coyote-style walls painted to look like the road ahead in an attempt to trick them in.
Okay so the latter is pretty unlikely to arise in the real world, but that didnless’t stop former nasa engineer and current youtuber mark rober from seeing just how cell self-distributes stand up-Drhicals Stand Up to the Looney Tunes Test. In his most recent VIDEO Titled, “Can you fool a self driving car?“Rober Pits two different autonomous vehicle systems-Teesla’s Computer Vision-Only Autopilot and An Unnamed System That Uses Light Detection and Ranging Sensors -P AP ATHSTES OTHS That culminates in an attempt to stop a car in its tracks using the same technique that wile e. coyote tried to use to stop the road runner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqjl3htsdyq
At the risk of spoiling the video for you, the tesla leaves a cartoonishly large hole in the wall after autopilot power
It is the third failure in six tests that Rober Runs, Including a series of experiences that set out to determine if a self-Dr. While Tesla’s Autopilot Technology Manages to Stop for a Stationary Dummy, A Dummy That Runs Out in Front of it at the last second, and a dummy that is obscured by blading Somewhat Autonomous System Sends The Fake Kid Right Over the bumper when it was hidden by fog and heavy rain. And for as unlikely as it is that you’ll come across a photorealistic recreation of the road in front of you plastered on a wall, fog and rain season like pretty common obstacles.
By Contrast, The Lidar System Succeded Every Time. This should come as too much of a surprise as the video is lowkey an ad for lidar. It starts with rober using a portable lidar sensor to map out the Space mountain ride At disney world and features a plug for a lidar manufacturer, so you kinda knew where this beele thing was going from the start.
But it is notworthy just how effective the Lidar system was shown to be in the video, as tesla has very publicly decided to forgo these sensors in fastrely The reasoning for this varies depending on who you ask and when, but it usually Boils Down To lidar sensors costing too much, requires more data processing to use, and ultimately serving as a crutch that slows down the development of computer vision. Tesla Ceo Elon Musk Has Gone So far as to Call Lidar A “fool’s errand,
Maybe that is true, but it also doesn’t barrel through walls, so Gotta weight the pros and conscience. Hard to imagine letting your car slam into a kid that it might have avoided with other technology on board and saying, “Well, at least this Didn’T Slow the Development of Technology that Event Might Not Result in this exact thing that just happy. “
Anyway, the video is very enjoyable to watch, as are most of rober’s efforts. And, judging by the Rober’s tweet Showing the footage of the wall crash, it’s turned the tesla true believers So that’s fun.