ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - April 2023 - 21

Software
started selling something called FSD in 2016, [the NHTSA]
should have immediately put a stop to it until Tesla could
validate something that matched the branding. While slightly
less egregious, AutoPilot shouldn't have been allowed either, "
Abuelsamid added.
The past year's spate of driving-automation developers
consolidating, downsizing or completely closing shop, combined
with Tesla's FSD recall, proves that most AV developers simply
have been on the wrong path from the start, said Michael DeKort,
a former U.S. Dept. of Defense and aerospace engineer and
founder and CTO of AV simulation developer Dactle.Almost
all AV development has come with a degree of over-promise; Tesla
is " just the most egregious offender, " DeKort asserted.
But Abuelsamid noted a fundamental distinction between
Tesla and all other AV developers.
" We should separate Tesla from all the other companies
developing automated driving systems, " he said, because Tesla
is the only one " currently marketing anything to consumers
on vehicles they can buy and that they control. They are also
the only ones shipping a beta (more accurately an alpha at this
stage of maturity) of a safety-critical system to consumers. "
OTA as a 'fix'
Tesla intends to address the NHTSA's concerns with FSD's
functionality with an over-the-air (OTA) software update.
But experts argue that a mere software " repair " of the system's
responses to a handful of specific driving situations won't or
can't address foundational issues with FSD's deeper, artificial
intelligence (AI)-guided algorithms.
" Can [FSD's recall-related problems] be fixed? Certainly, "
said Abuelsamid. " Will they be adequately fixed? That remains
to be seen. "
Might an OTA update be mere window dressing to satisfy
regulators' potentially simplistic understanding of the problem's
scope? Cummings isn't convinced any substantive correction
of FSD can be expeditious.
" The problems can be fixed through an OTA, " Cummings
said, " but I think realistically for the specific recall, it would
take a couple of years of dedicated effort to make that happen.
And Tesla said they fixed the problem of [crashing into
stationary] first responders more than a year ago and clearly
that is not the case. "
DeKort has for years insisted that nearly all AV developers
are on the wrong strategic path. No developer " will ever get
close " to SAE Level 4 or Level 5 operation using their current
Automated shuttle developer Cruise Automation, which does not
deploy its automated-driving software for vehicles sold to the public,
said in late 2022 that its driverless vehicles had logged 500,000 miles
" without any major incidents. "
strategies, he insisted. He said the answer comes in three areas:
embrace of artificial general-learning (AGI) intelligence; almost
complete emphasis of simulation testing rather than real-world
testing on public roads; and adopting U.S. DoD/FAA-level
simulation rather gaming-based simulation engines. ■
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ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - April 2023

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