Autopilot cars / Automobile safety systems do not see motorcycles?
Autopilot cars / Automobile safety systems do not see motorcycles?
It has come to my attention that the Tesla autopilot system does not recognize motorcycles well, if at all. (See article here) So is there a radar / lidar reflector we can add to the back of our bikes?
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 157,323
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From: Michigan 15 Minutes East Of Hell
There is an "International Autonomous Excursion" today. Leaving Detroit, through the tunnel to Windsor, Ontario then back into Michigan through Port Huron, I believe. They are trying to "teach" the vehicle the ins and outs of tool booth operations and functioning inside a tunnel.
Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Oct 2007
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From: New Bern NC
There are so many reasons the driver less cars sounds like a bad idea I wouldn't know where to begin. For starters the plan is to eliminate all accidents on the road. That's not possible but maybe they could be drastically reduced? But think about it the only way this even begins to work is if ALL vehicles on the road are Autonomous.(Motorcycles are now banned). If you can't take Texting Tina, Drunken Dave, and Sleepy Sam off the road then you'll still have accidents the computer can't avoid.
Take it a step further, you can't keep nature off the road so what happens when a large animal crosses the road and suddenly enters the cars sensors? If the pedestrians on the sidewalk are smaller and less likely to cause injury to the cars occupant does the car dodge the elk and hit the pedestrian?
Sensors to help a driver avoid an accident seem like a good use for this technology but taking the diver out of the drivers seat seems like a bad idea to me.
Take it a step further, you can't keep nature off the road so what happens when a large animal crosses the road and suddenly enters the cars sensors? If the pedestrians on the sidewalk are smaller and less likely to cause injury to the cars occupant does the car dodge the elk and hit the pedestrian?
Sensors to help a driver avoid an accident seem like a good use for this technology but taking the diver out of the drivers seat seems like a bad idea to me.
Tourer
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 494
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From: Bay Area, CA
The Tesla system is not autonomous and should not be called auto-pilot. Google cars have logged millions of miles now and have arguably become safer than human drivers. The systems are not yet perfect, but they are improving at a rapid pace. Humans, on the other hand, are not.
If the argument is the autonomous car must be perfect before it is acceptable, then we should judge human drivers by the same metric. There is always a margin for error. In the Google case, it has already flipped in favor of the autonomous car. No, it is not perfect and there will still be accidents where the autonomous car is at fault. The odds of an accident caused by a human driver are already greater, however.
If the argument is the autonomous car must be perfect before it is acceptable, then we should judge human drivers by the same metric. There is always a margin for error. In the Google case, it has already flipped in favor of the autonomous car. No, it is not perfect and there will still be accidents where the autonomous car is at fault. The odds of an accident caused by a human driver are already greater, however.
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Stellar HDF Member
Joined: May 2014
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From: Huntington Beach, CA
This thread is drifting. I still want to know the answer to the OP's original question: do these autonomous systems see and deal properly with motorcycles on the road? A Harley Davidson motorcycle consists of a lot of metal and I would have hope that it was a substantial enough object for the autonomous systems to take note of it and deal with.
There was some press earlier this year that the autonomous systems did not deal with pedestrians. Apparently they regard it to be the job of pedestrians to deal with the car. I am not sure how motorcycles factor into this, but it is a good question that the OP asked in his original posting.
There was some press earlier this year that the autonomous systems did not deal with pedestrians. Apparently they regard it to be the job of pedestrians to deal with the car. I am not sure how motorcycles factor into this, but it is a good question that the OP asked in his original posting.
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Tourer
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 494
Likes: 63
From: Bay Area, CA
This thread is drifting. I still want to know the answer to the OP's original question: do these autonomous systems see and deal properly with motorcycles on the road? A Harley Davidson motorcycle consists of a lot of metal and I would have hope that it was a substantial enough object for the autonomous systems to take note of it and deal with.
There was some press earlier this year that the autonomous systems did not deal with pedestrians. Apparently they regard it to be the job of pedestrians to deal with the car. I am not sure how motorcycles factor into this, but it is a good question that the OP asked in his original posting.
There was some press earlier this year that the autonomous systems did not deal with pedestrians. Apparently they regard it to be the job of pedestrians to deal with the car. I am not sure how motorcycles factor into this, but it is a good question that the OP asked in his original posting.
Sometimes they don't identify things properly, with those instances continuing to fall as the systems improve. They are designed to deal with all of the obstacles that occur while driving.
They absolutely deal with pedestrians - there is no expectation that the pedestrian should need to avoid the car. This has caused problems during Google testing, as their autonomous cars yield to pedestrians as the law requires, which leads to the cars getting rear-ended by human drivers who do not.
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Oct 2009
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From: North Dakota
I don't know how good the autocar systems are, but the roadside signs with the radar that shows your speed? They pick up my trike but not my dyna. My question, what happens when the sensors get dirty? Does the car stop 'cos it can't see? Could a kid with a mudball stop one cold?