A Tesla Model and, a wall that simulates a road, a youtuber of 65.8 million followers, its reputation. The reputation of Tesla, its security systems and semi -autonomous driving. Another YouTube. A cybertruck tesla. Another wall with another painted road.
Indeed, there are people by throwing their tesla against a wall: what is happening?
The coyote game and the roadrunner. “I am in my tesla at 64 km/h with the activated highway launched against a false wall in the style of the coyote and the roadrunner.” This is how it starts Mark Rober’s videoknown NASA engineer with a YouTube channel in which 65.8 million subscribers are counted.
Rober travels in his car thrown against a false wall in which he has simulated that the road on which circulates continues and perfectly simulates what it really is: a decoration. The objective is to check if your Tesla Model and equipped exclusively with cameras offers better or worse performance than a car equipped with a Lidar system As far as autonomous driving systems are concerned.
The background. Rober uses his video to explain the differences between a car that bases its semi -autonomous driving in the cameras exclusively and those that use the Lidar system. In 2021, Tesla already advanced that would base its entire system of driving aid in the cameras. In 2022 it was confirmed that the company would stop riding radars and sensors.
The company ensures that its software is able to analyze everything that happens exclusively using cameras with reliability that matches that of radars and sensors. Along the way, evidently, the cost of assembling these components that irremediably increase the final cost of the vehicle is saved.
To check if this is true, Rober tests A Tesla Moder and that only uses cameras In its Autopilot system and a lexus RX equipped with a lidar sensor of the luminar company. The cars are launched with activated semi -autonomous driving functions (Autopilot in the case of Tesla and adaptive cruise control in the lexus) to verify what happens in different scenarios. Among them, children who appear in the trajectory of the car or very intense rains.
The wall. During his tests, the vehicle equipped with Lidar December and saved a child from being hit if he was already on the road, if he appeared behind an obstacle, in cases of fog and intense rain or if he was dazzled by an intense light. And yes, also if there was a wall on the road painted with the simulation of a road.
The Tesla Model and could not say the same and the cameras did not exceed the tests of the fog, the rain … and the famous wall. In the latter case, the car was cheated and thought that the road continued, not stopping at all.
And has exploded the controversy. The video Mark Rober has exploded the controversy on social networks for various reasons. The first and most obvious: does this type make sense? When can a car find a wall that completely covers a road simulating that it continues later?
Beyond that this has to value each other, what is true is that Rober activates the highway a few seconds before reaching the wall and in the video it is observed how the system is disabled when it is going to collide. Rober has been accused of turning off the system but has defended himself on social networks publishing a complete video in which it is seen how the system is disabled before the crash. A criticism that has been repeated To Tesla vehicles, accusing the company of washing their hands before the authorities.
But not only that, Rober has also been criticized for using a vehicle with autopilot and not with Full Self Driving (FSD)the most advanced autonomous driving system in Tesla while Lexus was equipped with Lidar, one of the most expensive technologies at the moment.
Cameras vs lidar. The experiment has something interesting although not a resolution. The truth is that one might expect that a cameras based system is less effective than one accompanied by a lidar. The single combination of mounting a camera and a radar has been demonstrated The most effective option So far both day and night.
The cameras analyze with images what they have in front but a lidar sends pulses of light constantly around them. That light bounces on the object and returns to the lidar. With the time that has passed since the shipping of the pulse of light until it receives it again you can create a 3D map that, in the case of the wall, serves to verify that there is an obstacle on the road even if it can deceive the camera.
Autopilot and FSD. The other great criticism that has been made to Rober is that he uses a car equipped with Autopilot but not with the FSDthe most advanced driving aid system of Tesla. The FSD is offered as an additional option through a subscription and allows the driver to disregard driving (even in urban environments) as long as it remains attentive to what happens in front of his eyes.
For example, the Autopilot demands from the driver the confirmation of lane change but the FSD navigates between the streets by itself, without the need for driver’s validations. In fact, in the United States it allows The car travels 65 meters without a driver Inside. Thus, we can ask a tesla parked to come to pick us up from a distance.
And there are people by throwing their cars against a wall. Rober’s experiment has given wings to other YouTuber who have come out to defend the company. In response, Kyle Paul, who has 237,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel and specializes in Tesla videos, He has published his own test.
The goal has been the same: will your Tesla Cybertruck before a wall that simulates the continuation of the road? And his answer is that if the car has activated Autopilot does not take the wall ahead. Or that’s what it seems because, again, there is controversy.
And has exploded the controversy (2). Because … Is it quite true that the car would not take the wall ahead? The problem is that in Kyle Paul’s video the test is performed at the afternoon. It is not just that the recreation of the road on the wall is of worse quality, it is also easier to attract the attention of the cameras
If the light falls, the theory says that the cameras work worse in this case the fall of light in the environment is very likely that it helps the cameras identify that they have an obstacle in front and detect it more clearly. Especially if we consider that the environmental light is already poor enough to have to activate those of the vehicle.
Is all this for something? Yes and no. We could say that not because it is about demonstrating that a Lidar system works better than the cameras (provided they are not accompanied by other devices) is something we already knew and that it was demonstrated. In fact, the real challenge for Tesla is to demonstrate that its artificial intelligence systems and cameras can match their operation spending less money.
And if. Because Tesla wants to put cars without driver in a Robotaxis service that works with its most advanced autonomous driving systems. Until very recently the authorities were clear that I wasn’t at Mercedes levelwhich can offer a level of Autonomous Driving Level 3 (He does not require driver’s attention in some situations), but already has received the approval of California to test in its streets, as long as you do with your own employees.
Photo | Carter Baran
In Xataka | Tesla has recorded everything that happens inside and outside its cars. Also in the houses of their owners
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings