Tesla Autopilot

File:Tesla Model S Hwy 40.jpg

Tesla Autopilot may reduce accidents due to negligence and fatigue in long range drive use.

Tesla Autopilot is a semi-autonomous driver-assist technology developed by Tesla Motors. The hardware for Autopilot is included in every vehicle produced by Tesla after September 2014 and the software for Autopilot is an optional purchase.

Autopilot can be classified as between level 2 and level 3 under the SAE's five levels of vehicle automation, with level 5 being complete automation. Autopilot can act autonomously but requires the full attention of the driver, who must be prepared to take control at a moment's notice.

Development

Beginning with vehicles manufactured in late September 2014, all Model S vehicles produced since then come equipped with a camera mounted at the top of the windshield, forward looking radar (supplied by Bosch) in the lower grill, and ultrasonic acoustic location sensors in the front and rear bumpers that provide a 360-degree buffer zone around the car. This equipment allows Model S to detect road signs, lane markings, obstacles, and other vehicles. In addition to adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning, a US$2,500 "Tech Package" option will allow this system to enable semi-autonomous drive and parking capabilities. New models sold since October 9, 2014 have the option to have Autopilot, which allows hands-free driving in many situations. AutoPilot-enabled cars receive software updates for the AutoPilot software wirelessly, just as all other Model S cars receive general software updates wirelessly. These features were activated via over-the-air software updates as of October 15, 2015. The technology was developed in partnership with the Israeli company Mobileye. Tesla and Mobileye ended their partnership in July 2016.

In mid October 2015 in the U.S. Tesla rolled out version 7 of their software that included autopilot capability. In December 2015, Tesla announced that it will remove some of its self-driving features to discourage customers from engaging in risky behavior. Autopilot Firmware 7.1 includes restrictions that will only allow the Autopilot system and its Autosteer feature to engage when the Model S is traveling below the posted speed limit. Cruise control will still operate at any speed. Autopilot 7.1 includes the remote parking technology known as Summon. MotorTrend compared AutoPilot to similar systems in 2016.

On August 31, 2016, 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. In September 2016 Tesla announced Autopilot version 8 with a capability to use radar reflections from road and surroundings to "see" beyond the car in front. AutoPilot as of version 8 uses the radar as the primary sensor instead of the camera. Version 8 pushes current hardware to its limits, and new hardware will be using Nvidia CUDA.

Summon

On January 9, 2016, Tesla rolled out version 7.1 as an over-the-air update, adding a new "summon" feature that allows cars to self-park at parking locations without the driver in the car.

Fatal accidents

Media reported a fatal accident in China that occurred January 2016. A Tesla Model S struck a street sweeper on the left side of the roadway.

The first known fatal accident involving a Tesla Model S when the car was 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. 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. 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.

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. 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.

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 said 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.

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.

Public debate

Some industry experts have raised questions about the legal status of autonomous driving in the U.S. and whether Model S owner 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. 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 at the company said he does not think there is a regulatory block as far 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."

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." 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.“

Autopilot development focus is "increasingly sophisticated neural nets that can operate in reasonably sized computers in the car”. According to Musk, "the car will learn over time", including from other cars. 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. However, Ars Technica notes that that the brake system tends to initiate later than some drivers would anticipate. 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. 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.

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. Autopilot is suitable only on limited-access highways, and sometimes it 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.

There has been significant controversy over the media response to the fatal Tesla accident described in the above 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, but 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. Hence, when used as an assistive feature (as intended by Tesla), it is clear that Autopilot can only enhance road safety.

Autopilot potentially saved the life of a pedestrian in Washington, D.C. on the night of July 17, 2016, and played a pivotal role in a medical emergency involving 37-year-old Joshua Neally that same month. Neally was driving his Tesla Model X when he suffered a pulmonary embolism that caused intense panic and rendered him incapable of driving. 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.

External links

• Autopilot feature list