Automotive

Tesla video shows the grunt work behind its latest autonomous vehicles

Tesla video shows the grunt work behind its latest autonomous vehicles
There is a whole lot to take in as a self-driving car trying to survive on the street
There is a whole lot to take in as a self-driving car trying to survive on the street
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There is a whole lot to take in as a self-driving car trying to survive on the street
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There is a whole lot to take in as a self-driving car trying to survive on the street

You see a white van, it sees a green square. You see a street sign, it sees a purple square. Tesla's self-driving technology is undoubtedly more complex than that, but a video released by the company over the weekend does give insight into how its autonomous vehicles will interpret the world around them and get passengers to a destination in one piece.

Last month, Tesla announced a big-time upgrade to its Autopilot feature, which afforded its earlier cars semi-autonomous features. Built into all new Tesla vehicles moving forward, the new hardware package is designed for a future of full autonomy and includes eight surround cameras for 360-degree visibility within a 250-meter (820-ft) range, plus 12 new ultrasonic sensors, forward-facing radar and a powerful new computer to process all that information.

The company accompanied last month's big reveal with a video showing a Tesla vehicle drive itself through an urban environment without any input from a human driver. The newly released video is quite similar, but brings in perspectives from the car's outward-facing cameras with color-coded object-detection data laid over the top.

As we can see in the video, there is a whole lot to take in as a self-driving car trying to survive on the street. Lane markings come up in red and purple, motion flow is marked by streams of green and "in-path objects" show as green squares, while other objects come up in blue. The video ends with the car pulling up and reversing into a parking spot, nailing it in one shot, of course.

Bit by bit, Tesla expects to begin rolling out some of the new autonomous features on suitably equipped cars in the coming months.

You can check out the video below.

Source: Tesla

Autopilot Full Self-Driving Hardware (Neighborhood Short)

5 comments
5 comments
myale
The speeded up video seems to hide the moments the car does some unexpected stops - particularly near the joggers at 54 seconds - nothing on the incoming lane and they are on the pavement and it looks like it stops - how did nothing rear end it
StevePendry
At 41 sec it senses a pedestrian (object) at the side of the road but does not seem to move over to pass.
toller
There are significant shortcomings in the technology, at least for now. A Tesla Model S with Autopilot rear ended a motorcyclist on July 27. The autonomous system did not “see” the rider. When the glitches are corrected, everyone will be safer with these systems.
ljaques
Who put that inane Benny Hill music background on what should be a serious video? That was downright stupid. Interesting video. I think it would have been better at real-time to allow us to view the details better, to help us watch it make the decisions it made. Too bad both speeds weren't available here.
WarrenHarding
I thought the Benny Hill music was hilarious but I also noticed it stopped completely at times when a human wouldn't have and wouldn't have needed to. It could be a hazard for cars following. Still better safe than sorry. This will definitely be the way we get around before too long.