Musk reveals Tesla's Navigate on Autopilot feature is live, says fight with the SEC was...

[mongeese]

Why it matters: As Tesla’s autopilot technology takes a step forward, Elon Musk’s maturity takes a step backwards. In a tweet, Musk revealed that Tesla’s “most advanced autopilot feature ever,” called Navigate on Autopilot, would be available to US customers this weekend and would be rolling out to global markets shortly.

Shortly after the tweet, Tesla published a video and blog post that reveal the details of the feature. In essence, it’s designed to take full control of the vehicle on highways, from “on-ramp to off-ramp.” It’s able to autonomously navigate highway interchanges, take exits and change lanes. At present lane changing requires the driver to certify that it’s safe to do so, but Tesla will remove that requirement after the feature has been tested in the wild by users.

To enable the feature, head to Autopilot settings and enable Autosteer and Navigate on Autopilot and the option will show up when you enter a highway and have a preprogrammed destination. While the feature is designed to drive the car safely without user input, Tesla still maintains that “drivers are responsible for and must maintain in control of their car at all times. They say that the purpose of Navigate on Autopilot is to provide "an additional layer of safety that two eyes alone would not have."

Navigate on Autopilot will offer four settings regarding changing into faster moving lanes. The most aggressive, called Mad Max, will suggest changing into a lane if you’re currently traveling just slightly below your set cruise speed or slower. The average setting will change lanes if you’re traveling noticeably slower than the set cruise speed, and so on so forth. All settings are supposed to be equally safe.

What’s less safe is Elon Musk if he ever gets caught by the SEC again. A month ago, he was forced to step down as Chairman of Tesla and pay a $20 million fine for his tweets suggesting he would be taking Tesla private at $420 per share.

Worth it

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2018

Musk and Tesla shareholders in general lost a lot of money as shares plummeted after the SEC became involved, but shares have been on a strong upward trend recently and Musk is richer than ever. While the tweet seems to mostly be interpreted as Musk saying that the ‘420’ joke was worth it, the SEC could decide to interpret it as saying that the fines weren’t large enough to stop Musk from manipulating shares again. It wouldn’t be surprising if they threw the book at him in the future.

Regardless of Musk’s antics, Tesla seems to be doing a good job of continuing to improve their autopilot features. While Tesla is the big name in the autopilot game, Cadillac actually ranked higher than them in recent tests by Consumer Reports, so it’s likely that they’ll be pushing Navigate on Autopilot and other autonomous features even harder in the future.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/77133-musk-reveals-tesla-navigate-autopilot-feature-live-fight.html

 

[Reachable]

Just looked at Musk's Twitter page for the first time. That platform can really engender a lot of good will and humanize someone famous. That's kind of dangerous when it comes to corporations.

Was Musk really trying to manipulate the share price with the 420 tweet or was he just acting impetuously and expressing anger? Makes a difference.

 

[seeprime]

Just looked at Musk's Twitter page for the first time. That platform can really engender a lot of good will and humanize someone famous. That's kind of dangerous when it comes to corporations.

Was Musk really trying to manipulate the share price with the 420 tweet or was he just acting impetuously and expressing anger? Makes a difference.

I think Musk thought he was making a hilarious weed (420) joke. It wasn't really funny to anyone else.

 

[Uncle Al]

"Self-driving cars are almost in reach for the average consumer" ...... that is by far one of the bigger lies coming out of Tesla. They are far from self-driving and certainly not affordable for the average consumer. I would prescribe one of his flamethrower enemas and don't bother calling anyone in the morning!

 

[FF222]

Until you can leave all the driving to the car and fully trust it with that task, this technology not only does not help, but actually makes driving harder and more dangerous. Because the driver now not only has to keep an eye on the traffic, but also watch out that the car does not do something stupid, which gets him in trouble.

A half-ssed "self-driving" capability will either stress the driver more than usual (see above), which will make him get exhausted faster, or if the driver trusts the AI, it will make him less attentive. Either way, when sh*t hits the fan, the driver won't be able to react as fast and as good, as a driver of a regular car would.

And that's why "self-driving", as in a Tesla right now, not only does not make sense, but it's actually dangerous.

 

[senketsu]

Was Musk really trying to manipulate the share price with the 420 tweet or was he just acting impetuously and expressing anger? Makes a difference.

In some things, absolutely. In this case I don't think so. It may be a poor analogy but think of speeding. It makes no difference if you have exceeded the limit once (in a moment of impetuousness and anger), or whether it was planned. You get the ticket. I think they take Musk's actions much more seriously that they don't care why he tweeted. He did and it bounced the share price so guilty.

 

[captaincranky]

...[ ]....Was Musk really trying to manipulate the share price with the 420 tweet or was he just acting impetuously and expressing anger? Makes a difference.

Musk's entire persona is comprehensively about manipulating other people to his advantage and increasing his personal wealth. So, why is this a question you even bother to ask? Have you been listening to too many Musk tweets?

So no, it neither makes a difference, or is even relative to the result.

This doesn't even take into account the FBI investigating the production of the Tesla Model 3.

Or that fact that a car they promised "starting at $35,000", has been replaced by a stripped down version, "starting at $45,000", and they haven't once managed Musk's predicted production promises.

Not to mention Tesla's 2 billion dollar loss last year.

And you still don't think this clown Musk is just a bold faced, pure evil, liar?

 

[Theinsanegamer]

"Self-driving cars are almost in reach for the average consumer"

Cool your heels here guys. Self driving cars still get tricked by phantom bicycles, are terrified of non moving bushes, and nearly hit pedestrians. Why the uber car mowed down a cyclist without attempting to stop, despite LiDar being able to see her and having ample time to begin braking has still not been answered. Teslas with driving assistance (because that is all autopilot is) have a tendency to aim for highway crash barriers.

Ever driven a car with active safety? Cars with lane keep assist jerk you around in your own lane. Adaptive cruise control works great, until a sensor comes slightly out of alignment without warning, and suddenly you are inside the car in front of you.

We are a LONG way from self driving cars. Level 2 driver aids are very difficult to get right, and not even tesla has figured it out yet. All the problems I listed above? They were having these same problems 7 years ago, when I was in high school. Back then we were 5 years away from self driving cars. 7 years later, still cant do over 25 without panicking over a bush in a geofenced area, and self driving cars are now 5-10 years away. Past that, there are many loaded legal questions about who is responsible for an accident with a self driving car, how insurance will be handled, where said cars can be driven, ece. Everyone saying self driving is right around the corner, I have a fusion reactor to sell you.

 

[captaincranky]

....[ ]...Ever driven a car with active safety? Cars with lane keep assist jerk you around in your own lane. Adaptive cruise control works great, until a sensor comes slightly out of alignment without warning, and suddenly you are inside the car in front of you....[ ]....

Automatic lane centering is possibly the most asinine "safety feature", I've ever seen offered.

Given a rainy night with little traffic, the center of a lane is the last place any driver in their right mind should want to drive their car. The center of a lane will have two low spots from years of traffic, and that's where the water will puddle, that's where you're most likely to encounter skidding and hydroplaning,

Traffic conditions permitting, your best shot at a safe and comfortable trip, is to place your left wheels very close to the lane dividing stripe, and your right wheels on the high center of the lane.

With "lane keeping assist", you'll be out ruining the front end of your car, and constantly, being knocked around by driving into the damned 6" deep inlets for the storm drains.

And really, does anybody think this damned dumb a** sh!t is going to steer around those seem to be everywhere, too high and/or too low manhole covers, or plow right into them? Get real.

And how about potholes? They're probably testing this self driving crap on the most perfect roads they can find just to make it seem more desirable.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Anyone want to place bets on how many months until a fatal crash occurs with a Tesla vehicle in "navigate autopilot" mode?

 

[Reachable]

Limited access superhighways are just what autopilot was meant to be for. Driving reduced to the bare minimum of hazards (other than cars) and destinations, for the maximum possible safe speed. The driver is little more than a robot.

If you still have to sit behind the wheel with autopilot and be constantly attentive, there really isn't that much to be gained. But someday you'll just be able to relax, check your email or whatever and talk to other passengers, maybe actually facing them. That would be nice.