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Tesla Rejected More Advanced Driver Monitoring Features On Its Cars, Says Report (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Engineers inside Tesla wanted to add robust driver monitoring systems to the company's cars to help make sure drivers safely use Autopilot, and Tesla even worked with suppliers on possible solutions, according to The Wall Street Journal. But those executives -- Elon Musk included -- reportedly rejected the idea out of worry that the options might not work well enough, could be expensive, and because drivers might become annoyed by an overly nagging system.
Tesla considered a few different types of monitoring: one that would track a driver's eyes using a camera and infrared sensors, and another that involved adding more sensors to the steering wheel to make sure that the driver is holding on. Both ideas would help let the car's system know if the driver has stopped paying attention, which could reduce the chance of an accident in situations where Autopilot disengages or is incapable of keeping the car from crashing. Musk later confirmed on Twitter that the eye tracking option was "rejected for being ineffective, not for cost."
Tesla considered a few different types of monitoring: one that would track a driver's eyes using a camera and infrared sensors, and another that involved adding more sensors to the steering wheel to make sure that the driver is holding on. Both ideas would help let the car's system know if the driver has stopped paying attention, which could reduce the chance of an accident in situations where Autopilot disengages or is incapable of keeping the car from crashing. Musk later confirmed on Twitter that the eye tracking option was "rejected for being ineffective, not for cost."
Knowing that the driver is holding the steering wheel is not enough. You need to ascertain that all the muscular groups between the fingers and the spine are actively engaged and under tension. That is - fingers, palm, wrist, forearm, elbow, arm, shoulder... only if the muscules in all there areas are actively engaged you will ensure that the driver can take over. Eye tracking and a neural brain interface too to know what the driver is thinking...
I am loathe to link to Ars because its quality has gone down hill, but Cadillac's Supercruise is geofenced and uses eyetracking with rave reviews.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/02/the-cadillac-ct6-review-super-cruise-is-a-game-changer/
Eye tracking may or may not be reliable enough. But if eye tracking is not reliable, then nagware is definitely needed.
I feel this whole auto pilot, full self driving a big distraction from the core reason why I support Tesla.:
1. Make an electric that is affordable for at least 50% of the Americans.
2. Make a no negotiation, everyone pays the same price model for the cars, price transparency (secondary minor goal)
I wish Tesla would just let someone else develop this tech and license it.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Sort of ..... the markets rely on Musk raising capital. And Moody's bond rating of Tesla is based upon that.
What Musk discounted was that the "shorts" - the folks that short stocks - aren't people who wake up one day and think, "I hate this company."
They are mostly CPAs and lawyers and total accounting geeks. They examine financial documents like we read sci-fi books.
They discovered Enron's BS before it became publicly known and every other BS company.
They aren't "Haters". They are cold calculating bean counters and are not to be taken lightly like Musk did.
I could go on.....but it 's gonna be a book.
Maybe Cadillac is made by people with experience making cars? And not some Silly Valley big talker?
I test drove a Nissan Leaf with ProDrive, which is a lane following assist tech. It uses steering wheel feedback to make sure you're paying attention, and it felt like I was constantly fighting the car to drive.
Every single time you enable autopilot it tells you to keep both hands on the wheel and be prepared to take control at any time. If you don't do that, it's your fault, not Tesla's.
So this information was thoughtfully reviewed, felt not to be in the driver's best interest / effective enough to integrate and wasn't. This doesn't seem like an interesting story. This isn't gross negligence, this is just decision making and business.
Elon Musk is saying it was ineffective, but he also keeps calling the system an Autopilot.
This is just more evidence that Tesla is trying to have it both ways.
Informally they say:
"Look! It's a self-driving car! You just relax and it does everything!!"
Officially they say:
"It's basically just fancy cruise control, you need to watch it like a hawk every second it's engaged!!"
In practice they want and expect people to treat it as a self-driving car, but they need to tell them it's cruise-control for legal reasons.
That's why they ditched the eye tracking and other fancy tech that would keep people engaged. The "pay attention" safeguards are in-effective by design.
I stole this Sig
It's not an acceptable compromise for those buying the vehicles, I certainly wouldn't want a nagging vehicle when I already have a wife.