Volvo autonomous car engineer calls Tesla’s Autopilot a ‘wannabe'
#1
Volvo autonomous car engineer calls Tesla’s Autopilot a ‘wannabe'
Tesla's Autopilot semi-autonomous technology gives drivers the ability to take their hands off the wheel, while the car effectively drives itself on the highway. At launch, drivers didn't even need to touch the wheel to show that they were still awake and in the driver's seat. It's impressive technology and perhaps the most advanced autonomous tech available in a commercial automobile today. But that doesn't mean it's a good implementation of autonomous technology.
While Tesla says its technology is Level 2 autonomous — a combination of two technologies designed to make driving easier — some automotive industry experts, including Ford CEO Mark Fields, believe Autopilot is a Level 3 technology. That means it's designed to take over "safety-critical functions" from the driver. That's my impression from testing the system on a long road trip last month. I was able to drive on the highway for minutes at a time without touching the wheel at all. The driver is supposed to pay attention to the road in case of unexpected developments, but, as long as everything is going well, the car can keep itself in-lane and at the appropriate speed. But it's those unexpected developments that can be the problem.
"It gives you the impression that it's doing more than it is," says Trent Victor, senior technical leader of crash avoidance at Volvo, in an interview with The Verge. "[Tesla's Autopilot] is more of an unsupervised wannabe." In other words, Tesla is trying to create an semi-autonomous car that appears to be autonomous.
Victor says that Volvo believes that Level 3 autonomy, where the driver needs to be ready to take over at a moment's notice, is an unsafe solution. Because the driver is theoretically freed up to work on email or watch a video while the car drives itself, the company believes it is unrealistic to expect the driver to be ready to take over at a moment's notice and still have the car operate itself safely. "It's important for us as a company, our position on autonomous driving, is to keep it quite different so you know when you're in semi-autonomous and know when you're in unsupervised autonomous," he says.
Volvo's Drive Me autonomous car, which will launch in a public pilot next year, is a Level 4 autonomous car — this means not only will it drive itself down the road, but it is capable of handling any situation that it comes across without any human intervention. As a result, the human doesn't need to be involved in the driving at all. If something goes wrong, the car can safely stop itself at the side of the road.
"In our concept, if you don't take over, if you have fallen asleep or are watching a film, then we will take responsibility still," says Victor. "We won't just turn [autonomous mode] off. We take responsibility and we'll be stopping the vehicle if you don't take over." Unsaid here is that in its current "beta" incarnation (which customers have to pay thousands of dollars to enable) Tesla's Autopilot can suddenly turn itself off if it gets into trouble, and the driver must take over immediately or bad things can happen.
"That's a really important step in terms of safety, to make people understand that it's only an option for them take over," says Victor. Volvo is "taking responsibility both for crash events, and we're also programming it for extreme events like people walking in the road even where they're not supposed to be. There's a massive amount of work put into making it handle a crash or conflict situations."
It's mostly a difference of autonomous design philosophy for Tesla and Volvo. Tesla believes drivers can be trusted to make the appropriate decision with regards to their vehicle while Volvo wants to keep the driver from even putting himself into the position of getting into trouble with its autonomous tech.
At the end of the day, it may not be up to manufacturers or buyers: regulators are in the thick of trying to shore up rulemaking around self-driving systems. A NHTSA hearing to solicit public comments is taking place in Silicon Valley today.
While Tesla says its technology is Level 2 autonomous — a combination of two technologies designed to make driving easier — some automotive industry experts, including Ford CEO Mark Fields, believe Autopilot is a Level 3 technology. That means it's designed to take over "safety-critical functions" from the driver. That's my impression from testing the system on a long road trip last month. I was able to drive on the highway for minutes at a time without touching the wheel at all. The driver is supposed to pay attention to the road in case of unexpected developments, but, as long as everything is going well, the car can keep itself in-lane and at the appropriate speed. But it's those unexpected developments that can be the problem.
"It gives you the impression that it's doing more than it is," says Trent Victor, senior technical leader of crash avoidance at Volvo, in an interview with The Verge. "[Tesla's Autopilot] is more of an unsupervised wannabe." In other words, Tesla is trying to create an semi-autonomous car that appears to be autonomous.
Victor says that Volvo believes that Level 3 autonomy, where the driver needs to be ready to take over at a moment's notice, is an unsafe solution. Because the driver is theoretically freed up to work on email or watch a video while the car drives itself, the company believes it is unrealistic to expect the driver to be ready to take over at a moment's notice and still have the car operate itself safely. "It's important for us as a company, our position on autonomous driving, is to keep it quite different so you know when you're in semi-autonomous and know when you're in unsupervised autonomous," he says.
Volvo's Drive Me autonomous car, which will launch in a public pilot next year, is a Level 4 autonomous car — this means not only will it drive itself down the road, but it is capable of handling any situation that it comes across without any human intervention. As a result, the human doesn't need to be involved in the driving at all. If something goes wrong, the car can safely stop itself at the side of the road.
"In our concept, if you don't take over, if you have fallen asleep or are watching a film, then we will take responsibility still," says Victor. "We won't just turn [autonomous mode] off. We take responsibility and we'll be stopping the vehicle if you don't take over." Unsaid here is that in its current "beta" incarnation (which customers have to pay thousands of dollars to enable) Tesla's Autopilot can suddenly turn itself off if it gets into trouble, and the driver must take over immediately or bad things can happen.
"That's a really important step in terms of safety, to make people understand that it's only an option for them take over," says Victor. Volvo is "taking responsibility both for crash events, and we're also programming it for extreme events like people walking in the road even where they're not supposed to be. There's a massive amount of work put into making it handle a crash or conflict situations."
It's mostly a difference of autonomous design philosophy for Tesla and Volvo. Tesla believes drivers can be trusted to make the appropriate decision with regards to their vehicle while Volvo wants to keep the driver from even putting himself into the position of getting into trouble with its autonomous tech.
At the end of the day, it may not be up to manufacturers or buyers: regulators are in the thick of trying to shore up rulemaking around self-driving systems. A NHTSA hearing to solicit public comments is taking place in Silicon Valley today.
#2
Lexus Test Driver
I hadn't read much about Tesla's system so didn't realize it was only semi-autonomous. It's an important distinction because if the system is only semi-autonomous and I have to watch over it anyway, I might as well just be driving the thing.
#3
Lexus Fanatic
Tesla has the tech in production and it will keep improving over time Volvo is making claims. Pretty pathetic of Volvo honestly.
#4
Lexus Test Driver
And how many autonomous cars has Volvo sold? Whereas almost all Model S are capable of semi-autonomous driving. I like the new Volvos but this is plain trash-talking about a competitor.
#5
Lexus Champion
I would say that there is some semblance of truth to the Volvo engineer's statement. I have come to view any new technological release coming from Tesla with a healthy dose of skepticism because their new technologies are surrounded with an intense level of hype that hides their unreadiness for market behind a great smokescreen.
Tesla seems to have adopted a Microsoft philosophy to releases of new technology: Rush to market and worry about fixes later. Their over-the-air software updates allow constant software patches and fixes, just as Microsoft is continually pushing updates to their operating systems and other computer software applications to us. This is a philosophy of taking shortcuts by "allowing your users to conduct your testing for you".
Allowing software to be in perpetual Beta test (where the technology maker allows its customers / users to conduct "real world" testing) is great for email applications (such as Gmail), but with any technology that is truly safety-critical (where users could get killed if the technology fails in any fashion), such as (semi-) autonomous driving, an automaker cannot -- and should not -- be allowed to rush the technology to market.
Being someone who has been following autonomous vehicle development and testing, I am aware of the interest in -- and the work that is being done -- by various mobility companies, including Google, Ford, Uber, Lyft and Volvo (who recently got together to form the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, a lobbying group for autonomous driving). I had not heard that Tesla was developing a (semi-) autonomous driving application until the automaker suddenly announced the Autopilot application.
So, I ask this question: How much in-car, "real-world", busy-street testing did Tesla conduct for Autopilot? Is it really safe to use and truly ready for market? Google, Ford and Volvo have not (yet) released semi- and fully-autonomous driving applications to the market because they are still intensively testing, and do not yet believe that their systems are ready to go live. They know that they cannot afford to rush such safety-critical systems to the market.
Tesla seems to have adopted a Microsoft philosophy to releases of new technology: Rush to market and worry about fixes later. Their over-the-air software updates allow constant software patches and fixes, just as Microsoft is continually pushing updates to their operating systems and other computer software applications to us. This is a philosophy of taking shortcuts by "allowing your users to conduct your testing for you".
Allowing software to be in perpetual Beta test (where the technology maker allows its customers / users to conduct "real world" testing) is great for email applications (such as Gmail), but with any technology that is truly safety-critical (where users could get killed if the technology fails in any fashion), such as (semi-) autonomous driving, an automaker cannot -- and should not -- be allowed to rush the technology to market.
Being someone who has been following autonomous vehicle development and testing, I am aware of the interest in -- and the work that is being done -- by various mobility companies, including Google, Ford, Uber, Lyft and Volvo (who recently got together to form the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, a lobbying group for autonomous driving). I had not heard that Tesla was developing a (semi-) autonomous driving application until the automaker suddenly announced the Autopilot application.
So, I ask this question: How much in-car, "real-world", busy-street testing did Tesla conduct for Autopilot? Is it really safe to use and truly ready for market? Google, Ford and Volvo have not (yet) released semi- and fully-autonomous driving applications to the market because they are still intensively testing, and do not yet believe that their systems are ready to go live. They know that they cannot afford to rush such safety-critical systems to the market.
#6
We may all recall a Volvo crashing when showing off their safety systems within the last couple of years.
I also call sour grapes on them.
Semi-autonomous is an intermediate step and makes sense both to gain consumer familiarity/comfort/acceptance.
I have been enjoying the system in my Q50 since mid 2013.
The key benefits include how well the system works at braking and for steering on the highway.
Think of it as the car doing some of the work and commuting becomes less stressful/more relaxing.
I also call sour grapes on them.
Semi-autonomous is an intermediate step and makes sense both to gain consumer familiarity/comfort/acceptance.
I have been enjoying the system in my Q50 since mid 2013.
The key benefits include how well the system works at braking and for steering on the highway.
Think of it as the car doing some of the work and commuting becomes less stressful/more relaxing.
#7
Lexus Fanatic
Tesla seems to have adopted a Microsoft philosophy to releases of new technology: Rush to market and worry about fixes later. Their over-the-air software updates allow constant software patches and fixes, just as Microsoft is continually pushing updates to their operating systems and other computer software applications to us. This is a philosophy of taking shortcuts by "allowing your users to conduct your testing for you".
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#8
I am glad all of these car companies getting into the mix and becoming passionate about this topic. It will only lead to more competition, which will benefit everyone. Cannot wait for the day that i do not own a car and simply pay a service to hail a car whenever/wherever i need it
#9
Lexus Champion
Tesla is constantly updating the software not only for fixes but to add new features and refine current ones. They are doing it because they can, like it or not this is the future of cars. If and when Volvo has an electric car with autonomous driving features guess what they are going to be pushing updates to the car all the time just like Tesla. Bet on it. Especially with self driving it would be insane to freeze the software and never make any improvements.
If product such as Autopilot is only a semi-autonomous driving application (in concept, only one step up from adaptive cruise control), in which the driver must be constantly monitoring the car's progress down the road, no one should be led to believe that it is a fully autonomous system, either by outright lies or merely not informing its users what it is capable of and not capable of.
In my opinion, Tesla's Autopilot is not there yet. I am not convinced that it is a fully mature, safe product; and if Tesla has not informed their users whether it is a semi-autonomous or fully autonomous driving aid, they themselves may not yet know. This type of product is not ready for use on public roads.
Just as some people will not buy the first year's output of a new car model, I would not buy technology (be it Autopilot of falcon wing doors) from Tesla until it has matured for at least a year.
#10
Lexus Fanatic
Tesla has never claimed their cars are fully autonomous.
#11
Having sampled nearly every system on the market, Tesla's autopilot is the best on the road at this time. Mercedes Distronic plus is pretty smooth as well. Volvo and Audi have some semi-autonomous modes that only work below 40 mph or so at this point (have used them in the XC90 and the new Q7).
The way Tesla's autopilot can go for more prolonged times without the driver touching the wheel, the speeds up to which it can operate, auto lane change, navigating a curve, and then smooth slow down and acceleration through the use of the regen braking, all of this is one of the most advanced implementations of "smart" or adaptive cruise control capabilities.
The Tesla doesn't ping pong of the sides of the lanes like other systems. I don't believe any other car can do the auto lane change.
The Tesla does need the driver to watch for smaller obstacles in the road (debris, pothole, etc). and it does need some finesse with how a car merging in front of it is tracked. But again, this is the "semi" part of semi autonomous.
The way Tesla's autopilot can go for more prolonged times without the driver touching the wheel, the speeds up to which it can operate, auto lane change, navigating a curve, and then smooth slow down and acceleration through the use of the regen braking, all of this is one of the most advanced implementations of "smart" or adaptive cruise control capabilities.
The Tesla doesn't ping pong of the sides of the lanes like other systems. I don't believe any other car can do the auto lane change.
The Tesla does need the driver to watch for smaller obstacles in the road (debris, pothole, etc). and it does need some finesse with how a car merging in front of it is tracked. But again, this is the "semi" part of semi autonomous.
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Hoovey689
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