Comment by hunterb123 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hunterb123 | Hacker News Reader

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Single photon detecting eyes or not, most of us drive and know how hard that scenario would be to prevent.

I doubt I would have seen it or reacted in time.

There was a human in the Tesla that apparently didn't see it either.

- edit -

Sure... maybe a human could have "lessened the blow", maybe some humans, but now we're hindsight backseat driving and pulling things out of our ass.

As a human there's a lot that goes into it, it depends on how long you were driving, your vision at the time, whether you were talking, your driving skills, your reaction time, your handling of accidents, knowing where you can swerve to.

Some humans with full attention may have prevented it or weakened the crash, but that's a maybe, and assuming full attention.

Many people in this thread who think they would have noticed the subtle lighting effects on a pitch black pickup in the middle of the road. I've nearly hit blacked out cars on the road, you don't see them. You could go back and probably see it in a dashcam, but you know it's there then.

The uncompressed version you're still expecting a truck, it seems like it's much slower than what rounding a corner going 75mph on a freeway is, I don't think any of us could judge without being in the seat at the time.

All in all, this is the most speculative thread I've ever seen on HN. Very reaching, but anti-Tesla is hot news here so...

The big takeaway for me is how that Tesla just took that head-on collision at 75mph without compromising the cabin.

You're misunderstanding what people are saying. You've watched a highly compressed video from a camera sensor that is known to have relatively poor dynamic range (ie: it doesn't see well in the dark when lights are around). The point OP was making (that you completely dismissed) was that our eyes are actually quite good at sensing this scenario. Here's a better version: https://twitter.com/haenschengross/status/147332613675511808...

When you watch the uncompressed version, there are tons of visual cues to a human that there is an object in the way. This is no where near as subtle as the janky video makes it out. You can say you might have missed this at night but either you don't pay enough attention when you're driving, or you're giving tesla a pass here they don't deserve.

In addition, the radar detected the vehicle which should be enough to trigger a hard brake.

You may not have reacted in time to prevent a collision, but you very likely certainly would have stomped on the breaks before the impact.

Changing a 75mph collision into a 35mph collision is a world of difference in terms of the total energy.

I think it's important not to view "collision" as a binary event. With human drivers, it's pretty rare not to heal the squeal of breaks just before an impact. I suspect with automated driving (at least for a while) these kinds of "full speed" impacts will be more common than with human drivers.

It would have been difficult, but contrast is a lot different in real life. This video is pretty LDR, and the truck would have been visible at approximately 0:05, giving about 3 seconds warning, which is a lot when you are driving on a highway.

Don’t be so sure. The lines on the road have a obvious break where the truck is. You might have noticed that and slowed down as a result, even slowed down enough to be able to notice the truck in time.

you would have seen the light reflecting off the wreck when the truck drove past it. Because the light would be moving and in a place you wouldn't expect it, you would have been alerted.

You might not have been able recognise it was a pickup, but you would have at least braked earlier.

you should view the uncompressed video. very easy to see

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