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0 pointsjacquesm2mo ago0 comments

Sensor fusion allows you to resolve that ambiguity, I wonder if Elon is really as in touch with this as you would expect. No single sensor is perfect, they all have their problematic areas and a good sensor fusion scheme allows you to have your sensors reinforce each other in such a way that each operates as close as possible to their area of strength.

No single sensor can ever give you that kind of resilience. Sure, it is easy in that you never have ambiguity, but that means that when you're wrong there is also nothing to catch you to indicate something might be up.

This goes for any system where you have such a limited set of inputs that you never reach quorum the basic idea is to have enough sensors that you always have quorum, and to treat the absence of quorum as a very high priority failure.

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cameldrv2mo ago

Even if it doesn't allow you to resolve the ambiguity, knowing that there is an ambiguity is extremely valuable. Say the lidar detects a pedestrian but the camera doesn't. Which one do you believe? Well, you propagate the ambiguity and take appropriate action, i.e. slow down, change lanes, etc. Don't drive through an area where there's a decent chance that you're going to kill someone by doing it.

jacquesmOP2mo ago

Yes, absolutely. Knowledge about the fact that a conflict between sensors exists is valuable in its own right, it means you are seeing something that needs more work than simple reinforcement.

Fail safe, always. That's what I tried to get at with 'absence of quorum', it means you are in uncharted territory.

rhubarbtree2mo ago

Last time I checked I relied entirely on vision to drive autonomously.

jacquesmOP2mo ago

That's a very naive way of looking at this.

You have an extremely detailed world model including a mental model of the drivers and other road users around you. You rely on sight, sound, experience and lots of knowledge. You are aware of the social contracts at work when dealing with shared resources and your brain is many orders of magnitude more powerful than any box full of electronics.

What you can do with 'just vision' misses the fact that you are part of the hardware.

rhubarbtree2mo ago

I don’t disagree - what you’re saying is major improvements in AI would be needed to make this work. You are correct.

gf0002mo ago

You rely on a moving camera, microphones and vibrations all together. Driven by a supposedly more advanced meatware than what tech can create today, so that it can properly reason even with faulty/missing signals.

chpatrick2mo ago

Humans also get into accidents all the time, that's not a great benchmark.

twoWhlsGud2mo ago

And birds didn't invent jet engines, so obviously we don't need those either, right?

astrange2mo ago

You also have hearing, you can move your head and wear sunglasses to avoid glare, etc.

dboreham2mo ago

You have a much better GPU than it has.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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cameldrv2mo ago

jacquesmOP2mo ago

Yes, absolutely. Knowledge about the fact that a conflict between sensors exists is valuable in its own right, it means you are seeing something that needs more work than simple reinforcement.

Fail safe, always. That's what I tried to get at with 'absence of quorum', it means you are in uncharted territory.

rhubarbtree2mo ago

Last time I checked I relied entirely on vision to drive autonomously.

jacquesmOP2mo ago

That's a very naive way of looking at this.

What you can do with 'just vision' misses the fact that you are part of the hardware.

rhubarbtree2mo ago

I don’t disagree - what you’re saying is major improvements in AI would be needed to make this work. You are correct.

gf0002mo ago

chpatrick2mo ago

Humans also get into accidents all the time, that's not a great benchmark.

twoWhlsGud2mo ago

And birds didn't invent jet engines, so obviously we don't need those either, right?

astrange2mo ago

You also have hearing, you can move your head and wear sunglasses to avoid glare, etc.

dboreham2mo ago

You have a much better GPU than it has.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse