On October 26,2018, Tesla officially released the their most advanced Autopilot: Navigate on Autopilot. Tesla officially released the Version 9 update earlier this month, which included a new dash cam feature, games that can be played while the car is parked, and updates to the vehicle’s navigation settings, and indicated that Navigate would be following shortly thereafter.
Navigate on Autopilot is an active guidance feature for Enhanced Autopilot that, with driver supervision, guides a car from a highway’s on-ramp to off-ramp, including suggesting and making lane changes, navigating highway interchanges, and taking exits. It’s designed to make finding and following the most efficient path to your destination even easier on the highway when Autopilot is in use. While drivers should always be attentive when using Autopilot, stalk confirmation for lane changes allows us to ensure that drivers are paying attention at the exact moment they need to, and combined with the redundancy of eight external cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors, it provides an additional layer of safety that two eyes alone would not have.
The system uses an array of cameras, radar, and sensors to determine what objects are surrounding the vehicle, and uses this information to help the vehicle navigate, all while sending data back to the company’s vision and neural net system, allowing it to improve its software. Tesla says that since Autopilot was launched in 2015, it’s collected more than a billion miles worth of data.
The update of the autopilot is good thing for drivers’ safety. The driver assistant system have already proved it is a effective way to lower the crash rate based on the NHTSA report in 2016. I believe the assistant system will be popular and more competitive among the car produce company. However, how to determine the liability subject when the assistant system fail is a ethical problem and should be solved by legislation.
https://www.tesla.com/blog/introducing-navigate-autopilot
https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/27/18032092/tesla-version-9-autopilot-navigate-is-now-live
Click to access INCLA-PE16007-7876.PDF
I have always loved Tesla as a whole brand mainly due to the car industry they have capitalized on. From the perspective of someone who has driven, or has been driven by, a Tesla, the self driving technology is stunning. Furthermore, I one hundred percent believe that Tesla and self driving cars could reduce the amounts of crashes all over the world to an insignificant number. Although in class we have said that computers are quite smart but cannot do all the things humans can, these cars and their technology are far better at driving than the majority of the world. Any crashes that could possibly occur, without a doubt would be harmless to the driver and passengers. Even though everyone in the world probably won’t own a Tesla, the ones that do are at a much better advantage and are much safer than those driving regular cars. I have always tried to find a downside about self driving cars and Tesla, but I have never found anything to be that significant. Even if there were downsides, with Tesla’s capabilities of updating cars much like phones do, they can make changes at any time and enhance the performance and safety of their cars. Tesla will always be one step ahead of the world.
Really great article! I also saw that Tesla has a new feature called “auto pass” where it will automatically pass a car in front of you if that car is going under the speed limit. What’s cool is that it knows if there is room in the lane next to you and will alert you to put on your signal so that it can swiftly move over to the next lane all on its own. You can also create settings for your car’s “impatience” on slow drivers so that if you’re really impatient, the car will switch lanes every time.
It’s pretty interesting to see how fast cars are advancing and Tesla can definitely do things that no other car can do. I do agree that it is concerning because if this chip does not function properly, is it the driver’s fault or the car’s fault? Also, with this new chip coming our way, are people going to pay less attention to the road? Maybe with all the advancements in car technology, we will be smarter too, but many of us might really rely on these types of technologies. On the bright side, I do believe that this new addition will allow for safer cars and less accidents on the road overall.
References:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-now-self-drivingest-car-road-063800677.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tesla-new-self-driving-autopilot-chip-in-spring-2019-2018-10
The use of autopilot navigation in cars is very useful and I believe it will be very helpful in the future. However, I could see it becoming a liability. In the video, I saw how the user had to hit their blinker down twice in order to engage with it. I could see someone using this device and there is a technology error. What would happen if someone spilled water on it? Would it break? I love the idea but I think it’s gonna take 20-30 years for this device to fully work. It’s a great start but I don’t believe it’s ready to be on display yet. But, they’re on the right direction. If it fully works, which I believe it eventually will, drivers will feel more safe while they drive. Eventually, this will not only be used for Tesla but it will be used for all car companies. For example, the Volkswagen in 1968 started using the first computer controlled electronic fuel injection (EFI) system manufactured by Bosch. Eventually, other car companies started to do the same thing. I believe this will happen for autopilot navigation. Also, I love the idea of the car self-driving itself because when I drive for a while my arms get fatigued which leads to a higher chance of car accidents. So, self-driving leads to drivers being more save.
Reference:
https://www.tesla.com/autopilot
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-robert-scoble-autopilot-roadtrip/
I feel that the use of Autopilot navigation in cars will be extremely useful and beneficial to society. The use of this technology can decrease accidents/ death on the roads while also keeping the driver engaged so that if they should need to step in they easily can. Implementing this in all cars would be very beneficial in guiding drivers such as teen drivers or elderly people that have higher risk of causing accidents. However, this system is not as fool proof as it may seem and can actually be the cause of accidents in cases of system malfunctioning. One example of this can be seen through the death of 40-year old Joshua Brown. Brown was a major supported of Tesla who was even retweeted by Elon Musk for a video he posted avoiding an accident using autopilot mode. He was driving on the highway using autopilot and due to the brightly lit sky it did not detect the white side of a tractor trailer and therefore the break was not applied. While this could have been prevented if Brown had manually taken over he was not paying attention and was actually watching a movie at the time of the crash. While this technology has the potential to be very beneficial it is crucial that Tesla works to make their customers aware of the fact that although it is autopilot the driver must still pay attention to the road. It is almost impossible to create a system that will be 100% accurate and perfect driving on the road, as long as consumers understand the risk of use and continue to pay attention while driving there is no reason this won’t be successful.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/02/elon-musk-self-driving-tesla-autopilot-joshua-brown-risks
Maybe we will see flying cars in our lifetime? Tesla continues to be one step ahead of the auto-industry game with there advancements in autopilot. Elon Musk’s continue use of iteration seems to be finally paying off. Of course, this product is not final yet and there are many factors to consider, this is a solid step into the right direction. I thought it was pretty cool to see the topic of gamification come to life in this post. Musk is constantly finding new ways to encourage product engagement and the implementation of a game-friendly dashboard is doing just that.
Besides the convenience of having a car almost drive for you, I think it is important you highlighted the safety focus of the update. I can imagine the safety concern of the general public, so to see the driver assistant system is decreasing car accidents by a decent amount is comforting to see. I also immediately thought about the Internet of Things as the system uses cameras and sensors to guide the vehicle as it drives. It seems as if every day I come across a new technology advancement that is being implemented to improve our general lives. It will be interesting to see the future of the auto industry as we grow up towards adulthood.
References:
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-navigate-on-autopilot-seamless-off-ramp-maneuver/
Hi ykz5087, I really like the subject of your post. I think this update in the navigation system of the Model 3 is very noteworthy not only for the Tesla brand, but for the automotive industry. I believe this is the beginning of mass produced vehicles having autonomous driving features. We talked about this in a lecture earlier in the semester, how we felt and the security of self driving vehicles. I want to reply to your question of liability of an accident and the ethics behind the data collection. I believe that the auto manufacturer is liable for the accidents caused by system failures, not the driver. There is also the idea of data collection from these Tesla cars. Its not that concerning that they’ve collected billions of miles of data for this feature, but how they store it is. It would be very distressing if a computer hacker was able to find out where you have been, where you are going, or even where you live if they can get access to that database. I like the idea of how this feature is improving and making its way to mass production, but I think before we see other car brands rolling out similar systems we should check these gray areas of liability and data privacy related to this feature.