My son has a Tesla and he never uses autopilot. He's ordered a Rivian truck but doesn't know when he'll get it. He's not into cars. They are just needed items to him.

 

The Tesla system utilizes a 'visual' system similar to our eyes. it is not LIDAR or radar based.
Optical image processing requires edge detection, think drawing a line around the truck like a cartoon.
While purely speculation I suspect that the processing software views the lower edge of the truck body which is white as a horizon line.
Think along the lines of an infinity pool or a road rising into the distance.
There is no reason to brake since there would be no hazard.
again, just my guess.

 

I know nothing about this or computers, but all of the programming is done by humans, and every human I know makes mistakes. Garbage in - Garbage Out , you only need one mistake to cause a death of a person on the road. So I don't trust any of it. People have been killed, driverless cars will soon be killing people too.

 

In the case of self driving cars there is a totally different conundrum.
"who do you kill?"
scenario, a oncoming car erratically swerves.
option 1) avoid contact with the oncoming car but in doing so hit and likely kill the mother pushing the baby carriage?
option 2) slam into the oncoming vehicle sacrificing yourself and killing the 'your' driver?

which option do you take?

 

Good question, I think the mother and baby get the short end of the stick, lol.

 

Not a worry I share. Driverless cars probably won't be allowed in most jurisdictions until it can be proven that they are an order of magnitude less dangerous than human driven cars. As you say, every human makes mistakes, even when behind the wheel.

If all cars were driverless and malfunctioning systems resulted in 10,000 fatalities a year, that would still be less than a quarter of the 42,795 people who died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in the U.S. last year.

 

I know that is the argument everyone will use. But you will always have the 42795 deaths with or without driverless , unless every car on the road will be driverless but they won't be. I will never sit in a driverless car, never ,ever , ever, I won't even be in the passenger seat of a moving car as it is today. So if you have one driverless car killing someone, then you will just have 42,796 deaths. That's how I see it.

 

If driverless cars prove to be safer than human driven cars by a significant margin, we can expect total traffic deaths to go down. Simple logic. I think the fear of not being in control is at the bottom of a lot of the pushback on driverless cars. Understandable. I am a reasonably confident driver but I am always a nervous passenger when anyone other than my oldest son is driving.

 

For you youngsters who never knew when doing zero to 60 in 10.5 seconds was a big deal for a sports car. And a brand new car for under $3k.

 

Just for kicks... $3000 in 1955 (ad's date) = $35K today.

Seems about right.