What the feds’ investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot means for future of self-driving cars
krqe.com
by: Hayder Radha, Michigan State University
Posted: Aug 29, 2021 / 01:55 PM MDT / Updated: Aug 29, 2021 / 01:56 PM MDT
(THE CONVERSATION) It’s hard to miss the flashing lights of fire engines, ambulances, and police cars ahead of you as you’re driving down the road. But in at least 11 cases in the past three and a half years, Tesla’s Autopilot advanced driver-assistance system did just that. This led to 11 accidents in which Teslas crashed into emergency vehicles or other vehicles at those scenes, resulting in 17 injuries and one death.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has launched an investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot system in response to the crashes. The incidents took place between January 2018 and July 2021 in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, and Texas. The probe covers 765,000 Tesla cars – that’s virtually every car the company has made in the last seven years. It’s also not the first time the federal government has investigated Tesla’s Autopilot.
As a researcher who studies autonomous vehicles, I believe the investigation will put pressure on Tesla to reevaluate the technologies the company uses in Autopilot and could influence the future of driver-assistance systems and autonomous vehicles.
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Another equally important factor contributing to Tesla’s vehicle crashes is the company’s choice of sensor technologies. Tesla has consistently avoided the use of lidar. In simple terms, lidar is like radar but with lasers instead of radio waves. It’s capable of precisely detecting objects and estimating their distances. Virtually all major companies working on autonomous vehicles, including Waymo, Cruise, Volvo, Mercedes, Ford and GM, are using lidar as an essential technology for enabling automated vehicles to perceive their environments.
By relying on cameras, Tesla’s Autopilot is prone to potential failures caused by challenging lighting conditions, such as glare and darkness. In its announcement of the Tesla investigation, the NHTSA reported that most incidents occurred after dark where there were flashing emergency vehicle lights, flares or other lights. Lidar, in contrast, can operate under any lighting conditions and can “see” in the dark.
Fallout from the investigation
The preliminary evaluation will determine whether the NHTSA should proceed with an engineering analysis, which could lead to a recall. The investigation could eventually lead to changes in future versions of Tesla’s Autopilot and its other self-driving systems. The investigation might also indirectly have a broader impact on the deployment of future autonomous vehicles. In particular, the investigation may reinforce the need for lidar.
Although reports in May 2021 indicated that Tesla was testing lidar sensors, it’s not clear whether the company was quietly considering the technology or using it to validate their existing sensor systems. Tesla CEO Elon Musk called lidar “ a fool’s errand” in 2019, saying it’s expensive and unnecessary.
However, just as Tesla is revisiting systems that monitor driver attention, the NHTSA investigation could push the company to consider adding lidar or similar technologies to future vehicles. |
