• wewbull@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    10 hours ago

    Not saying you’re wrong (because I’ve always found it suspicious how Tesla always seems to report that autopilot is disengaged for fatal accidents) but there’s probably some people asking themselves “how could it detect the wall to disengage itself?”.

    The image on the wall has a perspective baked into it so it will look right from a certain position. A distance from which the lines of the real road match perfectly with the lines of the road on the wall. As you get closer than this distance the illusion will start to break down. The object tracking software will say “There are things moving in ways I can’t predict. Something is wrong here. I give up. Hand control to driver”.

    Autopilot disengaged.

    (And it only noticed a fraction of a second before hitting it, yet Mark is very conscious of it. He’s screaming. )

    Sidenote: the same is true as you move further from the wall than the ideal distance. The illusion will break down in that way too. However, the effect is far more subtle when you’re too far away. After all, the wall is just a tiny bit of your view when you’re a long way away, but it’s your whole view when you’re just about to hit it.