I worry that Tesla's self-driving ambitions put their entire mission (sustainable transit) and products at risk. Being conservative just isn't in their DNA—and you NEED that DNA to work on autonomy.
Advanced Summon is a good example of this problem. You might say it needs to be deployed to get the data needed to refine it. But they could have spent more time silently collecting data, comparing what the computer would do with what real drivers do. And they could have at least staged the rollout to happen much more slowly.
I just don't think they should have released it this widely in the current state. It's disingenuous to label it as beta and ask users to uncover the kinks with real risk to life and property.
Electric cars may be less polluting, but that doesn't make them "sustainable transit". It's a band-aid on the many problems caused by car-centric development, which does nothing to solve the fundamental issues:
"But they could have spent more time silently collecting data, comparing what the computer would do with what real drivers do."
From their Autonomy day presentation, I thought this is how most of their releases go though? They run it in shadow mode, then launch when the accuracy gets high enough?
That said, I do agree with you on the sentiment regarding Tesla's self-driving ambitions potentially putting their sustainable transit mission at risk.
The feature is not ready. The only reason Tesla pushed it out this early is that they want to recognize some of the Autopilot deferred revenue in Q3 to mask a YoY decline in revenue driven by lower ASPs, which damages their growth story.
Deferred revenue related to the access to our Supercharger network, internet connectivity, Autopilot and FSD features and over-the-air software updates on automotive sales with and without resale value guarantee amounted to $1.19 billion and $882.8 million as of June 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively.
Deferred revenue is equivalent to the total transaction price allocated to the performance obligations that are unsatisfied, or partially unsatisfied, as of the balance sheet date. Revenue recognized from the deferred revenue balance as of December 31, 2018 was $113.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2019. From the deferred revenue balance as of January 1, 2018, revenue recognized during the six months ended June 30, 2018 was $44.5 million.
Of the total deferred revenue on automotive sales with and without resale value guarantees, we expect to recognize $567.0 million of revenue in the next 12 months.
All of the videos I have seen of the summon feature have been pretty bad. A lot of time the vehicle can't seem to figure out what to do. I imagine that will get better with time, but if I had a Tesla I wouldn't be using it now.
There is a selection bias towards the videos posted and shared the most. That being, the videos showing things going wrong are spread more.
I've used mine a few times and had no issues. One of the times, a cop stopped and watched as my car made its way towards me. He then waved and moved on.
Many others have had no issues with it as well. it is "beta", and yeah, you need to have common sense when using it of course.
The headlines going around when it first came out of "Tesla smart summon gets into accident" was so misleading. It was another driver not looking when backing out and backed into the Tesla. That happens thousands of times daily in parking lots all over. Parking lots are a terrible, unsafe place to begin with.
If you use it with a little common sense, it works great. I just got the software update today and tested it out in a parking lot that had minimal foot traffic, worked perfectly.
I am pretty happy with mine. It isn't perfect, but it obviously isn't the nightmare that a lot of people with no actual experience with it are claiming.
Tesla will have tons of data to improve it in the short term.
I could be wrong about this but it seems the way autonomous driving works is that it needs a ton of real-world failures to learn from. There seems to a mostly-lay-person that there is no way around getting it out there and having people test it out in very odd parking lots with lots of babies toddling around it.
This is the process of evolution, can it be artificially simulated in a way that makes this unnecessary? Can we evolve without people dying or having sex?
It's sad. They will force regulators to act and it will affect legitimate companies working on Self-Driving. It seems most of other companies working on self-driving understand there is a lot of responsibility in pushing half-baked product on the street.
[+] [-] toddmorey|6 years ago|reply
Advanced Summon is a good example of this problem. You might say it needs to be deployed to get the data needed to refine it. But they could have spent more time silently collecting data, comparing what the computer would do with what real drivers do. And they could have at least staged the rollout to happen much more slowly.
I just don't think they should have released it this widely in the current state. It's disingenuous to label it as beta and ask users to uncover the kinks with real risk to life and property.
[+] [-] microtherion|6 years ago|reply
https://www.donkey.bike/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/autonomou...
[+] [-] dyarosla|6 years ago|reply
From their Autonomy day presentation, I thought this is how most of their releases go though? They run it in shadow mode, then launch when the accuracy gets high enough?
That said, I do agree with you on the sentiment regarding Tesla's self-driving ambitions potentially putting their sustainable transit mission at risk.
[+] [-] neural_thing|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zaroth|6 years ago|reply
Deferred revenue related to the access to our Supercharger network, internet connectivity, Autopilot and FSD features and over-the-air software updates on automotive sales with and without resale value guarantee amounted to $1.19 billion and $882.8 million as of June 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively.
Deferred revenue is equivalent to the total transaction price allocated to the performance obligations that are unsatisfied, or partially unsatisfied, as of the balance sheet date. Revenue recognized from the deferred revenue balance as of December 31, 2018 was $113.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2019. From the deferred revenue balance as of January 1, 2018, revenue recognized during the six months ended June 30, 2018 was $44.5 million.
Of the total deferred revenue on automotive sales with and without resale value guarantees, we expect to recognize $567.0 million of revenue in the next 12 months.
[+] [-] cloudwalking|6 years ago|reply
Lower ASP is to be expected as people are buying many more (and increasing) Model 3 than Model S/X.
[+] [-] Animats|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] davis_m|6 years ago|reply
I'm surprised they released the feature as-is.
[+] [-] Cshelton|6 years ago|reply
I've used mine a few times and had no issues. One of the times, a cop stopped and watched as my car made its way towards me. He then waved and moved on.
Many others have had no issues with it as well. it is "beta", and yeah, you need to have common sense when using it of course.
The headlines going around when it first came out of "Tesla smart summon gets into accident" was so misleading. It was another driver not looking when backing out and backed into the Tesla. That happens thousands of times daily in parking lots all over. Parking lots are a terrible, unsafe place to begin with.
[+] [-] gwbas1c|6 years ago|reply
One time I stopped the car out of an abundance of caution.
It's really a party trick more than a complete feature.
[+] [-] sixQuarks|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] goshx|6 years ago|reply
Tesla will have tons of data to improve it in the short term.
[+] [-] mitasu-hachi|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rpmisms|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] capkutay|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|6 years ago|reply
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21105388
[+] [-] mikelyons|6 years ago|reply
This is the process of evolution, can it be artificially simulated in a way that makes this unnecessary? Can we evolve without people dying or having sex?
[+] [-] kec|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] neonate|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rainyMammoth|6 years ago|reply
This is why we cannot have nice things.
[+] [-] mrtksn|6 years ago|reply
It’s pretty reasonable to regulate 2 metric tons steel bodies moving among fragile creatures.
Beta tests where bugs mean dead people aren’t cool.