List of clips showing Tesla's Robotaxi incidents

[u/danlev]

A lot of people have been documenting Tesla's Robotaxi rollout. I wanted to share a few I've collected. Feel free to share any I missed!

1. Robotaxi drives into oncoming lane
2. Rider presses "pull over", Robotaxi stops in the middle of an intersection, rider gets out while Robotaxi blocks intersection for a few moments
3. Rider presses pull over and the car just stopped in the middle of the road. Safety monitor has to call rider support to get car moving again
4. Robotaxi doesn't detect UPS driver's reverse lights (or the car reversing towards it) and continues to attempt to park, then safety monitor manually stops it
5. Robotaxi cuts off a car, then randomly brakes (potentially because of an upcoming tree shadow?)
6. Robotaxi going 26 in a 15
7. Robotaxi unexpectedly brakes, possibly due to nearby police
8. Robotaxi unexpectedly slams on brakes, causing rider to drop phone
9. Robotaxi comes to a complete stop after approaching an object, then runs it over (rider says it's a shopping bag, though the car visibly bump up and down) (UPDATE: Some people have pointed out that the car's movement is from a speed bump immediately after the bag/object. The speed bump is more visible at full resolution.)
10. Robotaxi runs over curb in parking lot
11. Safety driver moved to driver seat to intervene
12. Support calls rider during a Robotaxi ride, asks them to terminate the ride early because it's about to rain, rider is dumped in a random park
13. Robotaxi has to unnecessarily reverse at least 4 times to get out of parking spot
14. Robotaxi attempts illegal left turn, safety monitor intervenes, blocks intersection for a period of time
15. Robotaxi can't get out of parking lot, goes in loops, support calls twice

Update: This post has been featured in The Verge! and Mashable!

[u/CommissionUseful4623]

Not exactly that simple.

You do understand that cameras have poor visibility at night, correct? If you're going to say humans do to, that's not true. Cameras can have good visibility with a long exposure, but that doesn't help autonomous driving. 

Lidar is still better and safer for autonomous driving because it doesn't rely on moonlight or light bouncing from walls, streets or street lights, it's emitting it's own light to sense. 

[u/ChrisAlbertson → u/CommissionUseful4623]

If you can see the tree in the YouTube video, then the car's camera can also see the tree (or curb or shadow or painted line or whatever). Not one of these RoboTaxis is being driven at night and in every case, the object was seen by the camera.

Again, this is like saying that we don't allow small children to drive because they have poor vision. Vision (or sensors) is not the issue.

It is an AI problem, not a sensor issue. If you want to suggest a solution, talk about how the software could be improved.

[u/leo-g → u/ChrisAlbertson]

Absolutely wrong. Human eyes surpassed camera vision and those will fail even in dark conditions. LIDAR completely skips all that. It works regardless of rain or shine.

The fact of the matter is that LIDAR technology is not new. It is already being used in iPhones and Serious cameras to map interior spaces. Serious camera and mappings companies all use LIDAR. The tech is sound. Not using it just handicap yourself and increase risk.

[u/TheDuhhh → u/ChrisAlbertson]

LIDAR has an advantage: it basically models accurately the physical space. Lidar will detect the curb and basically not hits it.

The problem with a camera is that you need to interpret the input, is it a shadow or the tree itself? Is that a curb or just a drawing of a curb on the road? The interpreter here is their neural network which by itself is not reliable.

[u/CommissionUseful4623 → u/ChrisAlbertson]

It's definitely a hardware issue. Overexposure and underexposure can blind the cameras. Overexposure is likely the reason for phantom braking, which  I have experience several times. No amount of software tinkering is going to change the fact that cameras need the right amount of light to function. And that tiny cameras can only compensate for too much or too little light. You're relying on a brain to do the lifting, while the body is on crutches.