Photo: Hwood on Reddit
Just yesterday, we told you about Elon Musk's involvement with this year's World Artificial Intelligence Conference in China where Tesla's CEO touched heavily on the subject of self-driving cars, as you would expect.
Asked about the role of AI in the development of autonomous cars, Musk took advantage of the awfully vague question to talk about what he knows best, which is his company's Autopilot suite. He said the Full Self-Driving suite with all features enabled and level 3 hardware would be available by the end of the year, and he also claimed that Level 5 autonomy wasn't hidden behind any significant challenges anymore, meaning it should be achieved soon.
Meanwhile, in the real world, a Tesla Model X user who was out picking up some food and a tea decided he didn't feel like walking the 100 yards or so back to his car, so he summoned the EV. He Smart Summoned it, to be more exact, which is the second iteration of the function that allows the vehicle to turn, and not simply move back or forth.
According to the person posting his mishap on Reddit, he was using the latest hardware and software available for his vehicle, having his Full Self Driving suite (FSD) upgrade just a week before. In fairness to him, the setting did look like the perfect place to try out the feature, even though using it does make one look like a bit of a showboat. Still, he had bags with food and a cup of tea in his hands, probably, so it's a good enough reason.
Unfortunately for him and the car, what started out as smooth sailing hit a very small patch of rough waters in the shape of a lonely stop sign. It had a pretty thick post painted in yellow, so it makes you wonder how the system failed to pick it up but fail to pick it up it did. The owner's tea ritual was interrupted abruptly by the sound of his $100k (or more) car hitting a metal post, which is what led most Reddit users to blame it on him for not watching the EV's trip all the way.
The author of the post - who goes by the name of Hwood - says his trust in the system is ruined and laments what would have happened if instead of the post there was a person or a kid. Well, that just goes to show you how much of an optimist Elon Musk is and how ready some people are to believe what he's saying. For the moment, then, keep your hands on the wheel when using Autopilot and your eyes on the car when using Smart Summon, alright?
Meanwhile, in the real world, a Tesla Model X user who was out picking up some food and a tea decided he didn't feel like walking the 100 yards or so back to his car, so he summoned the EV. He Smart Summoned it, to be more exact, which is the second iteration of the function that allows the vehicle to turn, and not simply move back or forth.
According to the person posting his mishap on Reddit, he was using the latest hardware and software available for his vehicle, having his Full Self Driving suite (FSD) upgrade just a week before. In fairness to him, the setting did look like the perfect place to try out the feature, even though using it does make one look like a bit of a showboat. Still, he had bags with food and a cup of tea in his hands, probably, so it's a good enough reason.
Unfortunately for him and the car, what started out as smooth sailing hit a very small patch of rough waters in the shape of a lonely stop sign. It had a pretty thick post painted in yellow, so it makes you wonder how the system failed to pick it up but fail to pick it up it did. The owner's tea ritual was interrupted abruptly by the sound of his $100k (or more) car hitting a metal post, which is what led most Reddit users to blame it on him for not watching the EV's trip all the way.
The author of the post - who goes by the name of Hwood - says his trust in the system is ruined and laments what would have happened if instead of the post there was a person or a kid. Well, that just goes to show you how much of an optimist Elon Musk is and how ready some people are to believe what he's saying. For the moment, then, keep your hands on the wheel when using Autopilot and your eyes on the car when using Smart Summon, alright?
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