Tesla Autopilot

Tesla Autopilot may reduce accidents due to negligence and fatigue from long term driving.[1]

Tesla Autopilot is a driver assist feature offered by Tesla Motors. The company's stated intent is to offer fully autonomous driving at a future time, acknowledging that legal, regulatory and technical hurdles must be overcome to achieve this goal. Tesla Motors says it expects to enable full self-driving by the end of 2017.[2]

History

Autopilot was first offered on October 9, 2014, for Tesla Model S, followed by the Model X upon its release.[3][4] Autopilot was part of a US$2,500 "Tech Package" option. At that time Autopilot features included semi-autonomous drive and parking capabilities.[5][6][7] Initial versions of Autopilot were developed in partnership with the Israeli company Mobileye.[8] Tesla and Mobileye ended their partnership in July 2016.[9][10]

In mid October, 2015 in Tesla rolled out version 7 with Autopilot to US customers.[11] In December 2015, Tesla announced that it will remove some self-driving features to discourage customers from engaging in risky behavior. Autopilot Firmware 7.1 made those changes and includes remote parking technology known as Summon that can park and "unpark" without the driver in the car.[12][13][14]

On August 31, 2016, Elon Musk announced Autopilot Firmware 8.0, that processes radar signals to create a coarse point cloud similar to Lidar to help navigate in low visibility conditions, and even to 'see' in front of the car ahead.[15][16] Autopilot as of version 8 used radar as the primary sensor instead of the camera.[17]

As of October 2016, all new Tesla vehicles offer the necessary computing hardware for fully autonomous operation (SAE Level 5).[18] The company offers various free/extra-cost options for enabling Autopilot-associated features/services.

By November 2016, Autopilot had operated actively for 300 million miles (500 million km) and 1.3 billion miles (2 billion km) in shadow mode.[19]

Hardware

Hardware 1

Vehicles manufactured after late September 2014 are equipped with a camera mounted at the top of the windshield, forward looking radar (supplied by Bosch)[20][21] in the lower grill and ultrasonic acoustic location sensors in the front and rear bumpers that provide a 360-degree view around the car. This equipment allows Model S to detect road signs, lane markings, obstacles and other vehicles.

Hardware 2

Hardware 2 (released October 2016) includes an Nvidia Drive PX 2[22] GPU for CUDA based GPGPU computation (other sources suggest Titan).[23][24] Tesla claimed that Hardware 2 provided the necessary equipment to allow full self-driving capability at SAE Level 5. The hardware includes eight surround cameras and twelve ultrasonic sensors, in addition to forward-facing radar with enhanced processing capabilities.[18] Its computer is easily replaceable.[25] The radar was claimed to be able to see beneath the vehicle in front of the Tesla to observe the vehicle in front of that vehicle.[26]

Hardware specifications
Hardware 2014 Autopilot
Hardware 1 		2016 Enhanced Autopilot/Full Self-Driving Capability[27]
Hardware 2
Radar Unknown range 160 m (525 ft)
Forward Cameras 1 monochrome
Range: unknown 		Trifocal:
  • Narrow: 250 m (820 ft)
  • Main: 150 m (490 ft)
  • Wide: 60 m (195 ft)
Forward Looking Side Cameras 0
  • Left: 80 m (260 ft)
  • Right: 80 m (260 ft)
Rearward Looking Side Cameras 0
  • Left: 100 m (330 ft)
  • Right: 100 m (330 ft)
Rear View Camera For human use, not for automation use 50 m (165 ft)
Sonars 12 surrounding. 5 m (16 ft). 12 surrounding. 8 m (26 ft)

Driving features

Tesla requires operators to monitor the vehicle at all times, just as the Federal Aviation Administration requires pilots to monitor aircraft on autopilot. Autopilot includes adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning.

Updates

Autopilot-enabled cars receive software updates for the Autopilot software wirelessly, along with all other software updates.

Adaptive cruise control

Autopilot has the ability to follow another car, maintaining a safe distance from it as it speeds up and slows down. It can observe the vehicle in front of the vehicle that it is following.

Autosteer

Autopilot's Autosteer feature (lane-keeping) engages only when traveling below the posted speed limit. Adaptive cruise control operates at any speed.[28]

Alerts

Autopilot alerts the driver under various circumstances, such as a surprising situation on the road or excessive inattention by the driver. If the driver dismisses three audio warnings within an hour, Autopilot is disabled until the car is parked. This is to prevent experienced drivers from excessive reliance on built-in safety features. At speeds under 8 mph on divided highways, Autopilot functions indefinitely without the driver's hands on the wheel. Under 45 mph free hands are allowed for five minutes, unless the car detects lateral acceleration. Above 45 mph free hands is allowed for three minutes if following another vehicle or one minute without.[26]

Autonomous drive

External video
Demonstration of autonomous drive
Fast forward
Fast fast forward

As of 2016 the autonomous drive system operates in "shadow mode" (processing without taking action) and sends data to Tesla for analysis.[24] Features such as automatic emergency braking, collision warning, lane holding and active cruise control will be activated as they are validated. Full autonomy requires millions of miles of testing, and approval by authorities. Tesla expects to enable full self-driving by the end of 2017.[2][29]

Public debate

Some industry experts have raised questions about the legal status of autonomous driving in the U.S. and whether Model S owners would violate current state regulations when using the autopilot function. The few states that have passed laws allowing autonomous cars on the road limit their use for testing purposes, not the use by the general public. Also, there are questions about the liability for autonomous cars in case there is a mistake.[30] A Tesla spokesman said there is "nothing in our autopilot system that is in conflict with current regulations." "We are not getting rid of the pilot. This is about releasing the driver from tedious tasks so they can focus and provide better input." Google's director of self-driving cars said he does not think there is a regulatory block as long as the self-driving vehicle met crash-test and other safety standards. A spokesman for the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said that "any autonomous vehicle would need to meet applicable federal motor vehicle safety standards" and the NHTSA "will have the appropriate policies and regulations in place to ensure the safety of this type of vehicles."[30]

According to Elon Musk, the Model S was designed to be a computer on wheels: "We really designed the Model S to be a very sophisticated computer on wheels. Tesla is a software company as much as it is a hardware company. A huge part of what Tesla is, is a Silicon Valley software company. We view this the same as updating your phone or your laptop."[31] Full autonomy is “really a software limitation: The hardware exists to create full autonomy, so it’s really about developing advanced, narrow AI for the car to operate on.“[32][33]

The Autopilot development focus is on "increasingly sophisticated neural nets that can operate in reasonably sized computers in the car”.[32][33] According to Musk, "the car will learn over time", including from other cars.[34] Early data after 47 million miles of driving in autopilot mode shows the probability of an accident is at least 50% lower when using autopilot.[35] However, Ars Technica notes that the brake system tends to initiate later than some drivers expect

.[36] In fact, one driver claimed that Tesla's autopilot actually failed to brake, resulting in collisions. Tesla pointed out that the driver deactivated the cruise control of the car prior to the crash.[37] Ars Technica also notes that the lane changes are semi-automatic; the driver must activate the turn signal in order for the car to initiate a lane change.[38]

Tesla's Autopilot can be classified as somewhere between levels 2 and 3 under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) five levels of vehicle automation. At this level, the car can act autonomously but requires the driver to be prepared to take control at a moment's notice.[39][40] Autopilot 1 is suitable only on limited-access highways, and sometimes will fail to detect lane markings and disengage itself. In urban driving the system will not read traffic signals or obey stop signs. The system also does not detect pedestrians or cyclists.[41]

There has been significant controversy over the media response to the fatal Tesla accident described in the below section. Whilst a significant amount of blame was apportioned to Tesla for the failure of its Autopilot system, it must be noted that the system at the time of the accident was in a beta phase and not ready for widespread public use, and also required the driver to ensure that their hands remained on the steering wheel at all times, and to be prepared to resume manual driving at any moment.[42] Hence, when used as an assistive feature (as intended by Tesla), it is clear that Autopilot can only enhance road safety,[42] assuming it doesn't lull the driver into complacent inattention.

Autopilot potentially saved the life of a pedestrian in Washington, D.C. on the night of July 17, 2016,[43][44] and played a pivotal role in a medical emergency involving 37-year-old Joshua Neally that same month.[45] Neally was driving his Tesla Model X when he suffered a pulmonary embolism that caused intense panic and rendered him incapable of driving.[46] Neally used Autopilot to drive most of the highway to a local hospital. At the off-ramp, Neally took control of the car and drove to the emergency room.[46]

Serious crashes

Fatality

The first known fatal accident involving a Tesla in autopilot mode took place in Williston, Florida, on 7 May 2016. The driver was killed in a crash with a large 18-wheel tractor-trailer. By late June 2016 the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened a formal investigation into the accident, working with the Florida Highway Patrol. According to the NHTSA, preliminary reports indicate the crash occurred when the tractor-trailer made a left turn in front of the Tesla at an intersection on a non-controlled access highway, and the car failed to apply the brakes. The car continued to travel after passing under the truck’s trailer.[47][48][49] The NHTSA's preliminary evaluation was opened to examine the design and performance of any automated driving systems in use at the time of the crash, which involves a population of an estimated 25,000 Model S cars.[50] On 8 July 2016, the NHTSA requested Tesla Motors to hand over to the agency detailed information about the design, operation and testing of its Autopilot technology. The agency also requested details of all design changes and updates to Autopilot since its introduction, and Tesla's planned updates scheduled for the next four months.[51]

According to Tesla, "neither autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor-trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied." The car attempted to drive full speed under the trailer, "with the bottom of the trailer impacting the windshield of the Model S." Tesla also stated that this was Tesla’s first known autopilot death in over 130 million miles (208 million km) driven by its customers where Autopilot was activated. According to Tesla there is a fatality every 94 million miles (150 million km) among all type of vehicles in the U.S.[47][48][52] Some statisticians say that Tesla's use of statistics is meaningless due to the relatively small total distance traveled by Tesla cars and the different driving conditions of the two data sets being compared. It is estimated that billions of miles will need to be traveled before a statistically significant comparison can be made. Researchers say that Tesla and others need to release more data on the limitations and performance of automated driving systems if self-driving cars are to become safe and understood enough for mass market use.[53][54]

The truck's driver told the Associated Press that he could hear a Harry Potter movie playing in the crashed car, and said the car was driving so quickly that "he went so fast through my trailer I didn't see him." "It was still playing when he died and snapped a telephone pole a quarter mile down the road." According to the Florida Highway Patrol, they found in the wreckage an aftermarket portable DVD player. Tesla said it is not possible to watch videos on the Model S touch screen.[49][55]

In July 2016, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced it had opened a formal investigation into the fatal accident while the Autopilot was engaged. The NTSB is an investigative body that only has the power to make policy recommendations. An agency spokesman said "It's worth taking a look and seeing what we can learn from that event, so that as that automation is more widely introduced we can do it in the safest way possible." The NTSB opens annually about 25 to 30 highway investigations while it is mandated by law to investigate the more than 1,000 aviation accidents a year.[56]

References

  1. ↑ Epstein, Zach (2016-07-21). "Tesla Autopilot Crash Avoidance Model S Autopilot saves man's life". BGR. Retrieved 2016-08-26.
  2. 1 2 Lambert, Fred (2016-10-20). "Tesla's software timeline for 'Enhanced Autopilot' transition means 'Full Self-Driving Capability' as early as next year". Electrek. Retrieved 2016-10-20. At “2 to 3 months from now”, Tesla expects .. the new software validation for the Autopilot features
  3. ↑ Lambert, Fred (2016-11-10). "Tesla orders 3rd-party survey to prove owners understand 'Autopilot', 98% say they do". Electrek. Retrieved 2016-11-13.
  4. ↑ "Automated Flight Controls" (PDF). faa.gov. Federal Aviation Administration. Retrieved 2014-02-20. While the autopilot relieves you from manually manipulating the flight controls, you must maintain vigilance over the system to ensure that it performs the intended functions and the aircraft remains within acceptable parameters of altitudes, airspeeds, and airspace limits.
  5. ↑ "Riding shotgun in Tesla's fastest car ever". Engadget. Retrieved 2014-10-10.
  6. ↑ "Tesla D is, as expected, an AWD Model S but new autopilot features surprise". AutoblogGreen. Retrieved 2014-10-10.
  7. ↑ White, Joseph B. (2014-10-10). "Tesla Aims to Leapfrog Rivals". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2015-03-21.
  8. ↑ Howell, Donna (2015-08-17). "Tesla, Mobileye Rev Up on Future of Self-Driving Car". Investors.com. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  9. ↑ Bhuiyan, Johana (2016-07-26). "In the wake of a fatal crash, Tesla will quit using Mobileye's chips for Autopilot vision". ReCode. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
  10. ↑ Gitlin, Jonathan M. (2016-09-15). "Mobileye spills the beans: Tesla was dropped because of safety concerns". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2016-11-14.
  11. ↑ Nelson, Gabe (2015-10-14). "Tesla beams down 'autopilot' mode to Model S". Automotive News. Retrieved 2015-10-19.
  12. ↑ "Enhancing Safety and Convenience with Summon". Tesla Motors. 2016-02-08. Retrieved 2016-04-18.
  13. ↑ Zhang, Benjamin (2016-01-10). "ELON MUSK: In 2 years your Tesla will be able to drive from New York to LA and find you". Automotive News. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  14. ↑ Autopilot - Summon on Vimeo Tesla Motors
  15. ↑ Tesla to publish details of v8.0 with “Major improvements to Autopilot” later today August 31, 2016
  16. ↑ "Elon Musk explains Tesla Autopilot's new capacity to see ahead of the car in front of you". Electrek. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
  17. ↑ Analyst: Tesla Autopilot's Switch From Camera To Radar Bad News For Mobileye Benzinga, Retrieved 2016-09-12
  18. 1 2 "Autopilot: Full Self-Driving Hardware on All Cars". Tesla Motors. Retrieved 2016-10-21.
  19. ↑ Lambert, Fred (2016-11-13). "Tesla has now 1.3 billion miles of Autopilot data going into its new self-driving program". Electrek. Retrieved 2016-11-13.
  20. ↑ Isidore, Chris (2016-07-18). "Elon Musk says Autopilot upgrade could be coming". US: CNN. Retrieved 2016-07-19.
  21. ↑ Musk, Elon (2016-07-17). "Twitter". Retrieved 2016-07-19.
  22. ↑ Shapiro, Danny (2016-10-20). "Tesla Self-Driving Car Built on NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2 - NVIDIA Blog". The Official NVIDIA Blog. Retrieved 2016-10-21.
  23. ↑ "Tesla is about to increase its lead in semi-autonomous driving w/ 'Tesla Vision': computer vision based on NVIDIA's parallel computing". Electrek. 2016-10-10. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
  24. 1 2 Guess, Megan (2016-10-20). "Teslas will now be sold with enhanced hardware suite for full autonomy". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2016-10-20. Before activating the features enabled by the new hardware, we will further calibrate the system using millions of miles of real-world driving to ensure significant improvements to safety and convenience,” a Tesla press release said. “While this is occurring, Teslas with new hardware will temporarily lack certain features currently available on Teslas with first-generation Autopilot hardware, including some standard safety features such as automatic emergency breaking, collision warning, lane holding and active cruise control. As these features are robustly validated we will enable them over-the-air
  25. ↑ Lambert, Fred (2016-10-20). "Tesla is about to increase its lead in semi-autonomous driving w/ 'Tesla Vision': computer vision based on NVIDIA's parallel computing". Electrek. Retrieved 2016-10-20. Musk did say that the new vehicles will eventually be able to upgrade the new onboard Autopilot computer since the access has been made relatively easy
  26. 1 2 GITLIN, JONATHAN M. (September 11, 2016). "Tesla is all about autopilot and radar in firmware 8". Ars Technica. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
  27. ↑ "Autopilot". Tesla Motors. Retrieved 2016-11-07.
  28. ↑ Hall, Gina (2015-12-16). "Tesla to limit self-driving functions". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  29. ↑ All new Tesla cars now have hardware for ‘full self-driving capabilities’ The Verge, October 2016
  30. 1 2 Aaron M. Kessler (2015-03-19). "Elon Musk Says Self-Driving Tesla Cars Will Be in the U.S. by Summer". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-03-20.
  31. ↑ Hirsch, Jerry (2015-03-19). "Elon Musk: Model S not a car but a 'sophisticated computer on wheels'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-04-18.
  32. 1 2 "When Will Elon Musk Announce Autopilot 2.0 and the Model 3 HUD?".
  33. 1 2 McMahon, Jeff. "Software Is The Last Obstacle To Fully Autonomous Vehicles, Elon Musk Says".
  34. ↑ Musk, Elon (2015-07-31). "The car will learn over time, but there is a min caliber of starting quality.". Twitter. Archived from the original on 2015-11-10. Retrieved 2015-08-06.
  35. ↑ Loveday, Steven (2016-04-29). "Elon Musk "The Probability Of Having An Accident Is 50% Lower If You Have Autopilot On"". Inside EVs. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  36. ↑ Hutchinson, Lee (2016-05-21). "Cruising with Tesla's Autopilot in Houston traffic". Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  37. ↑ Gitlin, Jonathan (2016-05-14). "Another driver says Tesla's autopilot failed to brake; Tesla says otherwise". Ars Technica. US. Retrieved 2016-05-22.
  38. ↑ Hutchinson, Lee (2016-06-03). "Four hundred miles with Tesla's autopilot forced me to trust the machine". Ars Technica. US. Retrieved 2016-05-22.
  39. ↑ Golson, Jordan (2016-04-27). "Volvo autonomous car engineer calls Tesla's Autopilot a 'wannabe'". The Verge. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
  40. ↑ Korosec, Kirsten (2015-12-15). "Elon Musk Says Tesla Vehicles Will Drive Themselves in Two Years". Fortune (magazine). Retrieved 2016-07-01.
  41. ↑ Abuelsamid, Sam (2016-07-01). "Tesla Autopilot Fatality Shows Why Lidar And V2V Will Be Necessary For Autonomous Cars". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
  42. 1 2 "Thoughts on the fatal Tesla Autopilot accident". www.deeptread.com. Deep Tread. Retrieved 2016-09-19.
  43. ↑ Lambert, Fred (2016-07-21). "Tesla Autopilot reportedly prevented serious injury or saved the life of a pedestrian in DC". Electrek.
  44. ↑ elonmusk (2016-07-21). "Autopilot prevents serious injury or death of a pedestrian in NY [sic] (owner anecdote confirmed by vehicle logs)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  45. ↑ Etherington, Darrell. "Autopilot in Tesla Model X helps driver get safely to a hospital". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-12.
  46. 1 2 "Did Tesla's Model X's Autopilot Just Save This Missouri Man's Life? - Sokolove Law". Retrieved 2016-08-12.
  47. 1 2 Yadron, Danny; Tynan, Dan (2016-07-01). "Tesla driver dies in first fatal crash while using autopilot mode". The Guardian. San Francisco. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
  48. 1 2 Vlasic, Bill; Boudette, Neal E. (2016-06-30). "Self-Driving Tesla Involved in Fatal Crash". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
  49. 1 2 Morris, David Paul (2016-07-01). "Highway patrol found DVD player in wreckage of fatal Tesla accident". Associated Press. CNBC. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
  50. ↑ Office of Defects Investigations, NHTSA (2016-06-28). "ODI Resume - Investigation: PE 16-007" (PDF). U.S.: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Retrieved 2016-07-02.
  51. ↑ Shepardson, David (2016-07-12). "NHTSA seeks answers on fatal Tesla Autopilot crash". Automotive News. Retrieved 2016-07-13.
  52. ↑ "A Tragic Loss" (Press release). Tesla Motors. 2016-06-30. Retrieved 2016-07-01. This is the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles where Autopilot was activated. Among all vehicles in the US, there is a fatality every 94 million miles. Worldwide, there is a fatality approximately every 60 million miles.
  53. ↑ Simonite, Tom (2016-07-06). "Tesla's Dubious Claims About Autopilot's Safety Record". MIT Technology Review. US. Retrieved 2016-07-07.
  54. ↑ Abuelsamid, Sam (2016-07-05). "Adding Some Statistical Perspective To Tesla Autopilot Safety Claims". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-11-14.
  55. ↑ Liston, Barbara; Woodall, Bernie (2016-07-02). "DVD player found in Tesla car in fatal May crash". Retrieved 2016-07-03 – via Reuters.
  56. ↑ Levin, Alan; Plungis, Jeff (2016-07-08). "NTSB to scrutinize driver automation with probe of Tesla crash". Automotive News. Retrieved 2016-07-11.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.