A Youtube reviewer has found several serious flaws in Tesla’s self-driving system that should make anyone wary of ever using the device.
A group calling itself the Dawn Project, which works to grade computer programs and software for their efficiency and safety, recently reviewed Tesla’s Fully Self-Driving (FSD) technology.
The group posted a video to Youtube showing the results of its review of Tesla’s FSD and, boy is it troubling.
As the group noted on its webpage, the group performed its test in October on Tesla’s FSD beta version 10.69.22.
It looks like the results were not encouraging for the idea of self-driving cars.
One problem the group found is that the car using FSD repeatedly ran down baby carriages, seemingly unable to determine that the car should stop or move to avoid them. All this despite the huge investments in self-driving tech.
“The testing found that Tesla Full Self-Driving will repeatedly run down a stroller in a parking lot, a common driving scenario where pedestrians are likely to be present. The tests also found that Tesla Full Self-Driving will repeatedly hit a child mannequin in a stroller on public roads,” the group wrote.
It should be noted that the Dawn Project has been a vocal critic of self-driving technology, so they are certainly not an unbiased source. However, their test does give pause.
The video also seemed to show that the car did not slow down at all for parking lot speed bumps, which is not a good sign for the car’s suspension, tires, and undercarriage.
One would have to worry how the FSD would treat potholes? Here where I am in Chicago, if you don’t slow down or try to avoid the Windy City’s ever-present potholes, you will be replacing tires and rims over and over again.
The group added, “The Dawn Project’s safety tests confirm previous findings that Tesla Full Self-Driving represents a potentially lethal threat to child pedestrians. Our tests were conducted in real world driving scenarios on public roads, highlighting further the immediate and real danger posed to child pedestrians by Elon Musk’s dangerous and defective Full Self-Driving software.”
If this self-driving technology can’t distinguish between baby strollers, speed bumps, or potholes, this does not bode well for self-driving cars. Clearly speed bumps and potholes are not nearly as troubling as running down babies, but in total, it all just shows that the technology is not ready for use.
This particular test is far from the first time self-driving technology has come up wanting.
In Oct. it was reported that Musk and others have put $106 billion into developing the technology and it is still not usable.
Musk, for instance, insisted in 2016 that self-driving Teslas were only two years away. Now, six years later, Tesla owners are still waiting.
In the meantime, Teslas have also been involved in several fatal crashes for its separate autopilot system that even casts doubt on that technology.
In 2019, a Tesla user slammed into a semitrailer while the car was on autopilot mode. Last year, a man was killed when he ran into an overturned semi trailer in California. And in June, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that Tesla’s autopilot was the top of the list for accidents.
The constant promises of self-driving tech made by Tesla even sparked a class action lawsuit by car owners who are tired of being sold fantasies.
Some of Tesla’s other new self-driving programs are also not as effective as advocates claim. In May Consumer Reports found that Tesla’s Autopilot system was not reliable for changing lanes.
Still, it isn’t as if Tesla is the only one with this problematic self-driving tech. Apple has also been plagued with errors. In July someone using Apple’s self-driving tech nearly ran down a jogger while testing the system.
Regardless, it is clear that neither Tesla’s self-driving technology, nor that of any other company, is ready for prime time. And even autopilot has major drawbacks. This tech seems many years off in the distance, not only a few years as Musk and other companies and their programmers have claimed.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston
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