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Comment by jiggawatts | Hacker News Reader

This is a well-known issue with the current publicly available version of the Tesla auto-pilot: it largely ignores stationary objects that partially obstruct the lane.

The next version, currently in closed beta, is supposedly better at tracking parked cars and obstructions.

However, from what I've seen from dashcam videos by beta testers, it's still quite bad. Vehicles "pop" in and out of the AI's perception regularly. Not as bad as before, but still quite scary.

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Not just a problem with Tesla. My Audi SQ5 with the 'Advanced Drivers Assitance Pack' will happily drive in to a stationary car in front of me.

It's a problem with radars, they don't detect stationary objects well.

It's not that it doesn't detect them, it's that all lane-following systems are programmed to ignore them, because the radar doesn't have the resolution to distinguish between objects in the lane and objects outside the lane, such as trees or bridges.

It's why Tesla is moving towards an optical based system, and why Waymo uses lidar.

The vehicles popping in and out was improved pretty dramatically in fsd beta 9. Seems unfair not to mention that so I’m guessing you were unaware.

FSD beta 9 which 1) you have to pay 10k for and 2) only a few dozen people are eligible for. Seems like if this is a real problem they should fix in the product that everyone has or stop people from using it

You want them to push out untested, safety critical code to the general population? Don’t think it works that way.

Considering that the current production release runs into stopped emergency vehicles, seems like they already pushed out untested code to the general population. That's a pretty basic thing that should have obviously been part of their testing from the start. If it wasn't, I'm not feeling particularly good about the idea that their production releases are "tested".

Tesla is very clear about the limitations of autopilot, they require the driver to keep a hand on the wheel for a reason.

Would it be better if the car drove perfectly in all situations? Obviously yes. Are some people willing to pay for imperfect software that when paired with a human makes driving safer? Also yes.

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