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Software Transportation Operating Systems Hardware Technology

Tesla Updates Autopilot To Make It Follow the Speed Limit On Roads (electrek.co) 162

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Electrek: Before a recent update that is being gradually pushed to Tesla owners, the automaker allowed its Autopilot to be set at a higher speed than the speed limit on all roads where the driver assist system could be enabled, but now Tesla is pushing a new update to make Autopilot follow the rules of the road more closely. Owners of Tesla vehicles equipped with Autopilot have, up until now, been able to set the speed of the Autopilot's 'Traffic-Aware Cruise Control' feature to up to 5 mph over the speed limit on roads and non-divided highways. Now they are restricted to following the speed limit exactly, without the 5 mph leeway. On highways, the speed limit doesn't have a direct effect on the Autopilot's speed. The speed is still limited by the Autopilot's overall 90 mph speed limit. Every time Tesla introduces new restrictions to its Autopilot system, it gets a mixed response from owners. While the new restrictions are often coming from the aspiration of making the system safer, some owners always see them as taking away capabilities that they already had and had paid for. With the introduction of the software update v8.0 in September, Tesla introduced a more aggressive "Autopilot nag," which prompts more 'Hold Steering Wheel' alerts.
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Tesla Updates Autopilot To Make It Follow the Speed Limit On Roads

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  • Can you stop your Tesla from applying updates or does it follow the Windows 10 model?

    • Re:Question (Score:4, Informative)

      by BovineOne ( 119507 ) on Thursday December 22, 2016 @06:13PM (#53540371) Homepage Journal

      Each update must be acknowledged and scheduled for installation by the user, although theoretically there might be a backdoor way for them to remotely install updates without user consent. If you ever go a Tesla Service Center you'll need to remember to tell them not to install software updates for you (since they will commonly do that as a courtesy).

      However, there will also be a point where features in the older software versions may no longer be supported and capabilities may degrade, particularly if Tesla's server-side communications specific to those older versions are discontinued, particularly around the navigation features. The Tesla Service Center may also say that they are logistically unable to fix or support some issues without upgrading to a current version.

      • Re:Question (Score:4, Insightful)

        by JustNiz ( 692889 ) on Thursday December 22, 2016 @06:18PM (#53540391)

        IMHO it just seems like yet another reason to not buy a Tesla.

        • IMHO it just seems like yet another reason to not buy a Tesla.

          Oh, come on! This is Slashdot !

          Fixing that for you:
          it just seems like yet another reason to start our own "GNU OpenAutoFahrer" !

          We should register a GitHub repository like *right now*.
          And be ready to fork it as "LibreAutoFahrer" after 2 year due to creative dispute in the developer community.

          • by JustNiz ( 692889 )

            Why name it in German? that seems really random.

            • I know I shouldn't explain the joke, but....

              Why name it in German? that seems really random.

              Because :

              • Which OSS name isn't random ? (See GIMP, Konqueror, etc.)
              • There is a little bit of German which has transpired into the geek culture (the "Über" prefix, the construction of the imaginary word Blinkenlights and lots of other examples
              • Linguistic pun are somewhat present in the landscape of OSS names (See "Pidgin")
              • I wanted to quickly build a realistic sounding name for an Opensource alternative to Auto-pilot. Replacing one of the keyword with a synonym o
  • Makes sense (Score:5, Interesting)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Thursday December 22, 2016 @05:53PM (#53540261)

    I imagine this is just Tesla deciding it didn't want the legal liability, should a speeding Model S hit a bicyclist while going over the speed limit.

    Do Tesla owners have a way to prevent updates from being applied?

    • by Calydor ( 739835 )

      Pretty sure it isn't enforced the moment the driver actually, you know, DRIVES.

    • Do Tesla owners have a way to prevent updates from being applied?

      I hope so. I also hope we can then demerit drivers who don't apply the update for the specific purpose of breaking the law.

      • by LocalH ( 28506 )

        Not all jurisdictions consider slightly being over the speed limit to be a violation.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 22, 2016 @05:53PM (#53540267)

    The next update will make the car drive in the left hand lane with the turn signal on.

  • Traffic Tickets (Score:5, Interesting)

    by caferace ( 442 ) on Thursday December 22, 2016 @06:12PM (#53540367) Homepage

    Maybe a dumb question (I have no idea) but is there any data on how many and type of traffic tickets have been issued to Tesla owners running on autopilot? Curious.

    • Re:Traffic Tickets (Score:4, Informative)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Thursday December 22, 2016 @06:37PM (#53540495)

      I can imagine they are few. The Autopilot works best on motorways and if the autopilot can be set to a max 5mph over the speed limit a cop or speed camera won't give it a second glance. It's also better at not tailgating and does a pretty damn good job of not driving dangerously from my admittedly limited experience.

      • Seconded. While I like the 5 over, I typically don't use it so I wouldn't miss it. Autopilot shines most in heavy traffic. It keeps a safe distance (which is configurable, I prefer to keep it at the further end). Since it is radar based, it helps reduce the catapiller effect in stop-and-go, while also avoiding the "hug the bumper and slam the brakes" trap.
      • I can imagine they are few. The Autopilot works best on motorways and if the autopilot can be set to a max 5mph over the speed limit a cop or speed camera won't give it a second glance. It's also better at not tailgating and does a pretty damn good job of not driving dangerously from my admittedly limited experience.

        Yeah, most place has an semi-official 10% tolerance margin.

  • by Eloking ( 877834 ) on Thursday December 22, 2016 @06:43PM (#53540517)

    My grandfather always told me that the safest drive speed is the one that follow the traffic.

    I got this example in my city (and I'm sure most of you can relate) of some big, perfect straight highway with 5 lanes where the maximum speed is crazily set at 70 km/h (45 mph). And, as you can guess, everyone, even the slow lane, goes over 100.

    In my opinion, this is where corporate responsibility have entered too far in personal responsibility, kinda like I don't want my GPS to start an alarm and stop working if I go over the limit. So if there's an accident related to high speed where the user have set the speed over the limit, it's the driver's fault.

    • by AaronW ( 33736 )

      This is a case where Tesla is trying to discourage people from using Autopilot on undivided roads. The current autopilot system is not really designed for the way people are using it. It does not detect stop signs or red lights. It is designed mostly for divided highways. The next generation, Autopilot 2.0, is designed with undivided roads and full autonomous driving. All of the currently shipping cars ship with the hardware for this but lack the software which is still under development.

      If you want to driv

      • by Eloking ( 877834 )

        If you want to drive above the speed limit on undivided roads, don't use autopilot, it's as simple as that. Nobody is forcing anyone to use it.

        Of course nobody is forcing me, I'm one meaningless person, nobody care if I use it or not.

        My point is, if everyone deactivate the feature because they don't like driving slower than everyone else on the highway, how will Tesla accumulate autopilot date and hour to progress this tech?

        And I wonder how many accident will happen because the Tesla is thinking there's a working zone at 70 km/h while it was actually finished and people are driving 120 km/h. Sure it's that guy's fault for driving fast, but nobody

        • by AaronW ( 33736 )

          They can accumulate data with autopilot turned off. The hardware is not designed to fully handle undivided roads which is why they're doing this. The new hardware and the next major release should fix that, but not for cars manufactured before October 2016. More data from the older cars won't help when they lack the necessary sensors.

  • Any vehicle in Florida doing the speed limit -- even in the "slow lane" -- the far-right lane -- will become roadkill.

    Tesla, the best thing you could do is adaptive cruise. Just go with the flow, man...

    • The solution is to actually ENFORCE the rules, not discard them.

      • The solution is to actually ENFORCE the rules, not discard them.

        True enough, if the rules serve some useful purpose (other than serving as an excuse to ticket people). If, however, it's safer driving at 110 mph (175 km/hr) than at 65 mph (110 km/hr), then perhaps the rules should be discarded in favour of the safer (but higher) speeds.

        And, FWIW, yes, I also live in a place where driving the speed limit will get you killed, since most traffic is going considerably over the speed limit most of the time. Ac

    • This. I recently retook Ontario's driver's licence test, as I never got my full drivers license and it had run out years ago. And they have changed so much. Even the official driver's handbook states that you are supposed to go the speed of the other drivers.

  • How does it know what the official speed limit is?
    What happens if this is interfered with?
    I'm struggling to see how any customer could consider this a good thing.
    • The camera can OCR the speed limit signs. It combines that with GPS based data. It works well most times. It actually knows not to apply the change until you pass the sign, which also happens to match the laws.
  • by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Thursday December 22, 2016 @07:13PM (#53540649)

    One foot on the brake and one on the gas, hey!
    Well, there's too much traffic, I can't pass, no!
    So I tried my best illegal move
    Well, baby, black and white come and touched my groove again!
    Gonna write me up a 125
    Post my face wanted dead or alive
    Take my license, all that jive
    I can't drive 55! Oh No!
    Uh!
    So I signed my name on number 24, hey!
    Yeah the judge said, "Boy, just one more...
    We're gonna throw your ass in the city joint"
    Looked me in the eye, said, "You get my point?"
    I said Yea!, Oh yea!
    Write me up a 125
    Post my face wanted dead or alive
    Take my license, all that jive
    I can't drive 55!
    Oh, yea!
    I can't drive 55!
    I can't drive 55!
    I can't drive 55!
    I can't drive 55!
    Uh!

    • Uh!

      I wonder if when Sammy Hagar was writing those lyrics he actually wrote out "Uh!" or if he just thought to add that when he sang it.

  • What is the point of a limit 5 mph over limit? If you want to have a limit, the legal one seems to make more sense,
  • Once autonomous cars are commonly accepted then we will have more and more of them on the road. Once critical mass is achieved (not sure what this is) then it can become like I, Robot where autonomous mode can go way faster than manual drive mode. But until the tech is proven, solid, and accepted widely you can't have self-driven cars being at fault in any way or it will be a set back.
  • Except maybe Jimmy Stuart...

You are always doing something marginal when the boss drops by your desk.

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