Mike Thinks: Example Of Tesla's Self Driving Car Feature - Video

Nearly two years ago, I wrote a brief blog post detailing why self-driving cars were not going to be a reality for a 'long time.' In that article, I used an example of an intersection in a neighborhood which ends in a 'T' shape with roads continuing either left or right. The author of the article cited in the blog post explains that there are more accidents on this road than can be imagined. I took the opportunity to highlight this terrible intersection as an example of why autonomous cars were a ways off. If humans have trouble navigating the road, then how would an 'self-driving car' ever surmount this obstacle. I guess that I was wrong according to the video below -- pleasantly wrong!

In a recent article from the website 'Yale360' titled "Will Self-Driving Cars Usher in a Transportation Utopia or Dystopia?." a video was embedded which showed an example of the capability of Tesla's autonomous (self driving) feature shown below:

After viewing the video, I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong. Over the last two years, Tesla has improved the capability (accuracy and response time) for self-driving cars. A couple of months ago, I watched an interview with Elon Musk (CEO of Tesla), in which he discussed the state of self-driving vehicles.

He stated that the main issues is not accuracy or reliability with self-driving vehicles. Mainly because both of those components can be solved by adding in additional cameras and sensors around the vehicle. What the main issue with self-driving vehicles was with the cars on-board navigation system and the ability to dynamically change course. Specifically, he stated, a Tesla vehicle could be programmed at present to reach a destination in New York from California and hit the target in the specified time -- no problem.

The problem occurs when the route chosen is closed or has heavy traffic, the vehicles on-board computer cannot re-adjust very well to accommodate obstacles or impediments of that sort.

Conclusion...

Still, according the navigation shown in the video above, Tesla has made great strides toward improving self-driving vehicles. The future looks amazing from this vantage point. Hopefully, the progress/technology translates across vehicle manufacturers and becomes a standard for safety. On that note, I must take back my criticism from a couple of years ago about Tesla. I am pleasantly happy to be incorrect -- especially when my incorrect intuition leads to better driving vehicles on the road.

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Example Of Tesla's Self Driving Car Feature - Video - Amazing!

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