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E.W. Niedermeyer Profile picture
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21 Aug, 7 tweets, 3 min read
Good morning and happy weekend, please take a moment to read @JasonTorchinsky on Tesla's dead-end approach to Level 2 automation: jalopnik.com/teslas-ai-day-…
What Jason is saying here is (I think) similar to the logic that @Waymo (then just Google) followed back in 2012, when they decided not to bring "AutoPilot" to market: either you automate all the way, or you take a different approach to driver assistance. thedrive.com/tech/29877/dr-…
My @TheAutonocast co-host @AlexRoy144 wrote a good deal about this a few years back: the alternative to the "full automation" approach should be a ground-up philosophical rethink. "Augmented driving," not automated driving. thedrive.com/tech/9548/the-…
Calling Autopilot "driver assistance" is basically a cope. Tesla was trying to create a version of full automation, and simply hasn't made it good enough to be that (even in limited domains). What they have now is just shitty automation, forcing the driver to serve it.
Autopilot is a "reverse centaur," for no better reason than the fact that Tesla can't be arsed to do the extremely hard, unforgiving, and (crucially) incompatible-with-their-business-model work to make full automation actually work.
The only way to salvage this cynical garbage fire of a driving automation program (which was only created to avoid being left behind in the new Silicon Valley hype trend) is the hard, unglamorous work referenced above... and every new hype pump guarantees that will never happen.
So basically we are stuck relying on the (untrained) safety driver skills of a bunch of clout-chasing randos... at least until regulators finally shut this failed experiment down. It can't happen soon enough.

Have a great weekend!

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E.W. Niedermeyer Profile picture
26 Aug
Big news from @nurobots: they're building a test track and factory in Nevada, where they will develop and test autonomous delivery vehicles on a platform supplied by BYD. Huge partnership and step forward for this exciting AV developer! businesswire.com/news/home/2021…
BYD has been talking about US market ambitions for ages, but I certainly didn't predict that the first light vehicle (not bus) to leverage a BYD platform in this country would be an AV! Will be interesting to see how this platform supplier business plays out for them.
Meanwhile, after decades of EV analysts looking down their noses at the less-energy-dense lithium iron phosphate chemistry pioneered by BYD, even Tesla is following BYD's lead and expanding its use of the heavier but cheaper and safer chemistry.
Read 6 tweets
E.W. Niedermeyer Profile picture
25 Aug
It is so, so disappointing to hear this kind of clueless, conspiratorial ranting from someone who is formally associated with the Society of Automotive Engineers.

Just Facebook-tier boomer cringe, from start to finish.
"Are we going to see General Motors or VW or Mercedes or any of the other car companies... are we seeing what they've come up with?

No! It's crap. It's crap. I've driven almost every self-driving car, or even Autopilot car, and it's crap."

~Sandy Munro 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ #autonowashing
Had Munro tried to engage with the substance of Autopilot safety concerns as clearly established by multiple NTSB investigations, we might have a debate on our hands. He didn't even try. Just straight to conspiracy theories and righteous boomer anger.

I'm embarrassed for him.
Read 6 tweets
E.W. Niedermeyer Profile picture
24 Aug
It is only with decades of hindsight am I beginning to appreciate how profoundly my psychic development was affected by carpooling with a family that owned a brand new Toyota Previa when I was in second grade.

Friends, it felt like the future. It felt like... mobility innovation
It looked and felt like something from Star Trek: ovoid and aerodynamic from the outside, airy and spacious on the inside. A huge moonroof and swiveling second-row captains chairs were like nothing I'd seen on a van before. I still remember looking up and watching the rain fall.
I thought that the most lasting impact riding in that van would leave me with was a traumatic response to the Little Mermaid soundtrack, but instead that light blue Previa became my archetype for automotive futurism. To this day it's the standard every robotaxi must live up to.
Read 5 tweets
E.W. Niedermeyer Profile picture
24 Aug
Good morning!

I hope we're all savoring the irony of an industry that's been browbeaten by a million paternalistic slide decks into "catching up with modern technology" only for... *gestures wildly at everything*
Never forget what was taken from you. Return to tradition, modern car.

The ECU Trad has logged on.
Look, even I don't like this opinion... but dammit, it's true.
Read 4 tweets
E.W. Niedermeyer Profile picture
23 Aug
Secret's out: our national experiment with testing cutting edge driving technology on public roads has been remarkably safe because of humans. Not just any humans either, but highly-trained and dedicated humans. Absolutely nothing wrong with recognizing their contributions!
Mark my words, many of our experiments with artificial intelligence and automation will lead us back to this rare (actually) profound insight from Elon Musk. We systematically underrate ourselves and overrate technology.
None of this means AVs won't happen. We have got to take the long view with this technology, and be open to learning the lessons it teaches us about where it creates value and where it doesn't. People are way to anxious to leap to an ultimate conclusion about the technology now.
Read 4 tweets
E.W. Niedermeyer Profile picture
20 Aug
I'll start my #AIDay reactions thread on a positive note: taking the public inside the latest technology and not being afraid to go over a few heads (basically everything before the dancing "robot") is something the AV sector needs more of. Good for Tesla for leading on this.
The "real" part of the presentation was interesting and impressive... but impressive in terms of what the team has been able to do with an extremely limited hardware platform (sensor suite). It was not particularly impressive relative to what major L4 AV developers are doing.
Musk keeps talking about "real world AI" but basically everything substantive they discussed was foundational work. "Real world AI" development, in the AV context, starts with what Musk calls "the march of nines" and we saw very little about that kind of work. Where the 9s at?
Read 16 tweets

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