Tesla’s reputation banks on the whole “autonomous driving” feature. But that very feature is killing motorcyclists on the road. The primary reason is that the car isn’t able to discern a motorcycle ahead and ends up crashing into them. There have been two recent incidents of Tesla crashing into motorcycles and killing the two-wheeler riders.
YouTuber FortNine recently released a detailed video highlighting the ineffective autonomous driving feature of Tesla. Its crash detection system wasn’t able to identify motorcyclist riding ahead. FortNine laid out genuine concerns about Tesla cars and how the self-driving feature makes it a killing machine on highways.
Why did Tesla hit bikes on the highway?
FortNine pointed out the very principle on which the whole self-driving technology is based. AI-driving models study a lot of images which helps them learn about the road and which obstacles to avoid on the road.
But unlike the human mind, which can adjust to minute changes in situations, AI-driving always bases its decisions on what is fed to them. The YouTuber explained how Tesla cards comprehend the small lights on the taillight of a motorcycle.
Since they are small, the AI perceives them as a vehicle far away and bumps into them. Even at slow speeds, a car ramming into a motorcycle is dangerous, let alone the situation on the highways where every vehicle is going faster.
Tesla also removed the radar from the newer cars because they felt it was useless. Elon Musk explained that since the car already has sensors, using radar side-by-side was unnecessary. But now cars are unable to distinguish objects’ distances which are slightly far from the car.
Musk even said at a conference that adopting LIDAR (an improved version) was a fool’s errand. But FortNine explained that all this was just a cost-cutting move to lower manufacturing costs and increase the profit.
Many countries now consider Tesla’s self-driving branding as misleading. Because manual intervention is always needed on the road. Telsa is trying to sell the vision of the future, but its cars do not fare well against its claims. And it seems that Elon doesn’t care about the deaths that the vehicles are causing on the road.
