A longer Tesla demo video with no cuts: [1] This one is at a consistent speed, about 3x normal, and it's worth playing at 1/3 speed to see what's happening. No freeway driving; it's driving around the Page Mill Road / Los Altos Hills area. This video shows an ahead view and three of the vehicle's cameras with their annotations. The system puts rectangular 2D boxes around things it recognizes.<p>Road centerline recognition seems good. Every road seems to have really clear centerline markings, though. Road edge recognition isn't always successful. Roadside obstacle recognition seems very dependent on recognizing cars and people. The system doesn't recognize a large trash can in the roadway until very close. Recognition of roadside traffic cones and barriers seems to be about 50%. Guard rails aren't recognized at all.<p>This has the look of something using deep neural networks trained on common obstacles. It doesn't look like something that profiles terrain.<p>[1] <a href="https://vimeo.com/192261894" rel="nofollow">https://vimeo.com/192261894</a>
There seem to be some issues. E.g. it recognizes the joggers (0:55) as obstacles even though they're obviously (to a human) on the sidewalk. And when taking a right turn (1:01) it mistakes a hydrant and a parked car in a parking bay on the other side for an obstacle and stops for a moment before noticing that they're not actually in its lane.<p>I think a polite driver may have slowed down gradually to not startle the joggers, but not stopped if it were avoidable, especially since there was a car behind the tesla.<p>In the latter case i guess the field of view of the cameras is not wide enough to assess those things during a turn in advance?
Very cool demonstration (despite curious choice of music!).<p>I did notice that the lane markings are suspiciously bright and well-painted throughout the video. Almost as if they'd been touched up by Tesla! Or maybe this area just has particularly diligent road-painting crews.<p>In many parts of the real world you'd be lucky to get such clear lane markings throughout the journey, certainly not here in the UK or in places that get winter ice & snow.
There's also the longer (3:28) video with the Paint It Black theme:
<a href="https://www.tesla.com/videos/autopilot-self-driving-hardware-neighborhood-long" rel="nofollow">https://www.tesla.com/videos/autopilot-self-driving-hardware...</a>
Impressive to watch. The Tesla drives quite politely, but not annoyingly so (read that as impeding traffic). It actually stopped for the joggers who wasn't actually in the road, but very close. It also waited for a bicyclist on the right to turn left in front of the car.<p>Looks pretty promising, not bad, especially since the trend in software (and sensors) is to get better over time.
I believe Tesla's AP 2.0 is built on NVIDIA's platform (with probably a lot of custom stuff, of course). If you want to learn more about how that kind of system works, that CES 2016 demo is very instructive, especially from 42:50 onwards: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2573&v=KkpxA5rXjmA" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2573&v=KkpxA5rXj...</a>
Reading through Tesla blogs and watching this video, my understanding is the self driving hardware is cameras and ultrasonic sensors.<p>Does the lack of lidar not scare anyone else?<p>Also, Out of curiosity, does anyone know how a Tesla behaves if you point ultrasonic transducers in the same frequency at it? Do they have special modulation to avoid tampering in this manner? I imagine you could confuse the car into thinking there are barriers it can't see.
I would absolutely love to see how it handles roundabouts in the UK. Some of the ones I use daily are pretty hairy even for a competent driver.<p>And then there's the magic roundabout in Hemel Hempstead!
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih223jffmek" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih223jffmek</a>
Much better music video of real self-driving: [1] This is what traffic looks like when you totally eliminate human drivers.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm_rlLyelQo" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm_rlLyelQo</a>
To be completely fair, you can show me almost anything with Benny Hill music in the background and I will enjoy it ;)<p>Anybody knows if these 3 cameras on the right are the only ones used by the auto pilot?
I think watching this in real-time would be more informative. At 1:32, it pull out on what looks like could be a busy road, then stops before starting again. It doesn't look so bad sped up in the video, but not great in reality.
What's the most amazing is that Elon mentioned on twitter that it's only using data gathered in the past month since they announced the hardware/first video.
Fastest speed clocked in at 35mph during the entire trip with an average of 15-25mph for remainder of the time. Does this suffice a realistic use case? Specifically in US?
Couple spots where I think an inattentive driver could have easily rear-ended the car. ~0:55 mark is a prime example.<p>I understand that whether the driver was paying attention or not, he or she would be at fault, I'm just pointing it out.
So it appears it's reading the road signs? I see it stops on the intersection with a stop sign where's no traffic lights. But what if the sign is damaged or removed? The car will go straight without stopping?
I'm disappointed that radar images aren't included in the video. They ought to be very interesting, a whole new perspective on the world around us.
I'm curious about the implications of this technology (which is amazing) on courteous driving habits.<p>I regularly stop to let people cross the road, I cross the center line when safe to give people and cyclists (if I plan to pass) extra space etc. I suppose, in this Tesla at least, you can just take control, but some other proposed implementations seem to have a less traditional UI.
Well it was certainly fun to watch. Aren't there more detection methods than just cameras? This is certainly the best one I have seen from them but I still want to see it at night, in rain, and such, times when people need the most help with driving. This was still too nice of weather to get a good impression of how far its come.<p>Also, if the driver wants to exceed the speed limit of a road will autopilot allow them? If so, who becomes liable since the system will obviously know the speed.<p>If the road had not been curved when it came upon the joggers would it have passed without stopping? Is that something that needs work on? I understand its erring on the side of safety.<p>So next drives, a night run, a rain run, and if they are really ballsy then both at one time. Would be cool to have someone throw something in front of it while its going through the parking lot, beach ball, etc.
I'm surprised by the number of Stop signs everywhere. Is that normal in US? Also, there are moments in this video where the car was turning left and a driver coming from the opposite direction was turning right - yet Tesla turned first? How?<p>I really wish they provided a non-sped up video.
I'd love to see this in $heavilyPopulatedIndianCity. ahha, found this : <a href="http://www.theunrealtimes.com/2016/09/17/top-secret-uber-tested-its-self-driving-car-in-india-and-these-are-the-results/" rel="nofollow">http://www.theunrealtimes.com/2016/09/17/top-secret-uber-tes...</a><p>these guys are doing it right (teach your car to drive on the other side of the road) : <a href="http://www.deccanchronicle.com/technology/in-other-news/010316/self-driving-car-indian-techie-builds-autonomous-tata-nano.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.deccanchronicle.com/technology/in-other-news/0103...</a>
Is a realtime version available?<p>I notice at 0:24 in the short version (0:41 in longer version [0]) it seems to stop early for a stop sign and then resumes driving to the stop sign. It looks like the vehicle in the oncoming lane may have caused the stop. I only noticed because in the longer version the person in the driver's seat lifts his hands when the stop occurs (not as noticeable in the short version).<p>[0] <a href="https://www.tesla.com/videos/autopilot-self-driving-hardware-neighborhood-long" rel="nofollow">https://www.tesla.com/videos/autopilot-self-driving-hardware...</a>
Is it doing a weird maneuver on 1:32 or is it just me? Something like stopping right after turning. I'm not full aware of the USA transit laws so this might be required but it doesn't seem likely.
That's really impressive, but I really want to see it driving through rush hour in a densely populated old Italian city. Let's continue pushing the envelope.
I think the choice of music is quite clever, makes it seem jolly and approachable, instead of the connotations of solemn futurism that self-driving usually has.
The car seems to have a bad habit of turning its steering wheel at stop signs before making its turn. This isn't really a problem at stop signs, but would definitely be dangerous if turning left on a green while waiting for oncoming traffic.<p>The only left on green we get to see in the video is at 15s, but it didn't have to wait for any oncoming traffic. Hopefully it knows to treat those situations differently.
I would love to see how autopilot works in different cities (e.g Mexico City, Rome, Buenos Aires). I Just found "I tested Tesla Autopilot in Manhattan traffic — and lived to tell about it" <a href="http://mashable.com/2015/11/06/tesla-autopilot-new-york/" rel="nofollow">http://mashable.com/2015/11/06/tesla-autopilot-new-york/</a>
I wonder how these self-driving systems are going to deal with wildlife or even domestic pets running wild. It's fairly common on my commute to see deer grazing along the roadside just a few feet from the pavement. I typically slow way, way down and creep by as they'll walk right onto the road if the mood strikes them. Getting enough test-cases for the software could be difficult.
I really hope Tesla would do a demo on the roads of India. If a car can self drive there I would have no trouble purchasing one. Indian drivers are some of the most resourceful drivers I have seen on my visits there, yes its complete chaos, but how they navigate through all that, while utilizing every bit of the road is, just amazing.<p>p.s I really enjoyed the choice of music on that video.
As I watch all the views from the cameras, and watch how it is making decisions based on that information, I have to ask:
who says a machine can't be conscious? Who says it can't have free will? How do you define those terms so that includes people and animals, but doesn't include this vehicle?<p></deep philosophical mode>
Daimler done that 3 years ago even in high density city traffic. Daimler could even pass vehicles that covered half the lane and didn't need to stop for them. <a href="https://youtu.be/SUOC8tE4bdM" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/SUOC8tE4bdM</a>
Anyone understand how it's color coding the boxes on the right? Seems like green, blue, and purple all likely stand for different categories of objects.
Ok... I'm officially old now. I've been keen on the idea of self driving up until now. Watching this just makes me want to grab the wheel... too much traffic, too many people on the side of the road... nope I don't think would I be comfortable.<p>Oh well... I guess I'll have to wait for the mini-van style with blacked out windows :)
That's impressive, but still an easy course compared to what I see daily in my (large) city. I'll get mine in February and am curious to see what it'll do in those narrow roads where 2 vehicles going in opposite directions can't pass each other sometimes.
what happens when a few autopilot cars come to different roads on a 4 way stop?<p>What about driving through a parking lot (lots of cars around).<p>Seems dang near impossible to deal with all the edge cases.
I don't know about other countries, but at least in the Netherlands the Benny Hill song is used mainly in videos to ridicule the subject. I remember when funny 'Home Videos' were a thing on TV (before cats took over on the interweb) this song was used in about 90% of them. So to me, using this song in something as serious as a self driving car demonstration is pretty weird.
The Benny Hill theme tune was a pretty unfortunate choice of background music, not sure if that's the impression they wanted to make (maybe it was, not sure).
Wow so many comments about the Benny Hill music. I for one love that Elon Musk's quirky sense of humour. So many people take themselves far too seriously.