The person in question has already written a response to the open letter: <a href="https://twitter.com/WholeMarsBlog/status/1558122848601812993" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/WholeMarsBlog/status/1558122848601812993</a>
For more info on what’s doing on:<p>Controversy Erupts over Video of FSD Tesla Striking Child Mannequin (thedrive.com)<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32444601" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32444601</a>
Of course this half baked system that requires constant over the air bug fixes would plow through a kid in a crosswalk.<p>What puzzles me is that people actually bought into the marketing hype. Its a prototype quality car running alpha software…
> Don’t force a kid to walk in front of your 4,000-pound metal box traveling at god knows what speed<p>Some consolation, according to the tweet chain, is that it'll be at 5MPH and the child wouldn't be in front of the car (just on the sidewalk approaching the road). Still not sure the need to put an actual child at any risk when the car stopping for a dummy would prove the same point if not stronger.
I mean, it's not even that hard to put together a child-size dummy of ballistic gel (a la Mythbusters). Doesn't have to be a work of art, and it should be indistinguishable from the real thing (in terms of radar signature, etc).<p>Why not just have someone put one on a low cart and drag it along the road in front of your speeding Tesla, and beta-test it that way? Isn't Tesla doing that?
Seems easiest solution is for those wanting to test this just use themselves. After all, a squatting or sitting adult Is same height as a child, it would be the perfect substitute!
There are so many deer around california/oregon this time of year driving around outside of the city for a bit wouldn't take too long to find one. Not the same though of course
The Twitter post in question (<a href="https://twitter.com/wholemarsblog/status/1557112809132945408" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/wholemarsblog/status/1557112809132945408</a>) says “(this is a serious request)”.<p>Fine, then let’s treat it like a serious request. Apparently someone volunteered a child (<a href="https://twitter.com/wholemarsblog/status/1557206098876194816" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/wholemarsblog/status/1557206098876194816</a>, presumably their own child).<p>Has this (pseudonymous) person done a proper study workup? This is a proposal to put a child into a potentially life-threatening situation. I hope they’ve written up (and had reviewed) the rationale for why this can’t be simulated first. And I hope they’ve gotten the snapshot of the Tesla software used, for reference.<p>And for the person who volunteered their own child, I wonder if they should be talking to CPS right now.<p>The person who made the Twitter post mentioned the Bay Area. If they are serious, try going to a place like the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford, talking to the people there, and doing a study.
So I've mentioned this before -- traditionally, journalism involves reaching out to the person you're writing about for comment before posting it. I wish they'd mark off as "opinion" pieces like this that clearly don't follow those methods.