Universal Hands-Free can kill you! (If you don’t read release notes)

[LoneStar]

I do appreciate the comments about how informative the update notification is... however, I posted this to help the next fool that doesn't bother reading instructions.

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[Dark-Fx]

I do appreciate the comments about how informative the update notification is... however, I posted this to help the next fool that doesn't bother reading instructions.

If that next fool could read they would be really upset.

 

[CharonPDX]

Ha, I work in legal at a tech company, and everytime we publish a new notice or terms or a new feature, a big part of what keeps me up at night is the question "how can we get people to actually read this and understand it?" No matter how clear or explicit we think we are being, there will always be people that just jump right in. Doesn't help when marketing goes bananas with videos and ads and collabs skipping over all the disclosures we spent weeks/months perfecting

Nobody.

Nobody reads the release notes.

Except extreme nerds like me.

The big problem in this case is that there are two completely different things that were discussed at "Autonomy Day".

One was the upcoming "Universal Hands Free" - which is just the current-as-of-November Gen 2 system expanded to included all roads, with a few limitations on unmapped roads. This is just rolling out.

The second is "point to point", which is far more like Tesla's "Full Self Driving Supervised". _THAT_ is what all the hype was about, and what all the videos were about. This isn't coming until next year.

The problem arises when people see all the demos of "point to point" and think that's what "Universal Hands Free" is. And if you don't read the notes, and didn't pay close enough attention to the videos/press releases, you wouldn't realize they're two separate things.

UHF didn't almost kill OP - OP's lack of understanding of what UHF is almost killed OP.

(The misunderstanding about "cruise control being autopilot" have been around for decades. People have turned on old-fashioned "just holds a certain speed" cruise control thinking it would steer the vehicle, brake for slowing traffic, etc. *LONG* before vehicles were actually capable of that.)

 

[CharonPDX]

FTFY

Nah, OP is a small well-groomed tree. Hence why they couldn't read the release notes.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Not to pile on but... OP is an engineer. I was once an engineering student and the idea of "know your operating parameters" was beaten into me well before 2nd year was over. How can you be an engineer and not read/know the operating parameters?

What kind of engineer are you? civil? which bridges and buildings should I avoid in San Diego?

(this is meant to be humor)

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I decided to test this as well with a T junction. Unlike the OP, I was aware that UHF does not stop at signs or lights, but I wanted to see what it would do if the road ended at a T junction. I didn't let it go super long, but suffice to say, it didn't seem like it was going to stop before I felt uncomfortable and stopped.

The rule of thumb for UHF is to plan on it not stopping for anything except a vehicle in front of you.

 

[Rivian-E]

It's crazy that you somehow missed all the notes.

Right!? It literally says it plain as day in the release notes. It’s really not that hard to read when you’re changing the software on something as important as your vehicle.

 

[portdirect]

UHF != UEF (universal eyes free)

I for one fully support these Darwin Award attempts -long as we are no where near Northern Missouri/Southern Illinois for my families self preservation.

That said - I concur with the findings of others here,UHF really does keep going for a surprisingly long (impressive) way after the road markings have all gone... ...which *will* lead to some experiments on the in-laws farm over Christmas and new year.....

(I'm wondering if can spray some 'highways' around the fields )

 

[VSG]

... which *will* lead to some experiments on the in-laws farm over Christmas and new year.....

This will never get old ...

 

[gultin]

Universal Hands Free isn't Universal Limbs Free. You'll still need to use your legs to stop at traffic lights.

"Universal" in UHF is admittedly nearly as misleading as "Full" in FSD. I can totally understand that Universal was meant to indicate a vastly expanded road network, as opposed to meaning it works "universally". FSD on the other hand is "Full" of it, pun intended.

Just wish everyone took a minute to read, especially for an update that affects how they hurtle across this land at life-altering speeds!

 

[lefkonj]

Any form of cruise control can kill you because you still have to pay attention and understand what is happening around you. There is no talk about reading stop signs or traffic lights, just more roads covered by the hands free.

 

[skyguyscott]

It's crazy that you somehow missed all the notes.

Many of us are aware of the limitations of UHF, and some of us are skeptical enough of how engineers design stuff to RTFM before engaging such a system and even then...

But what is actually crazy IMHO is that companies are seriously planning to deploy these so-called autonomous systems in a society as technology illiterate and as litigious as ours.

Twenty-five years ago(!) I was working at a company formerly known as Delco (later Delphi) and they were already deeply at work designing self-driving vehicles -- long story short, after years of expen$$ive development and testing, the legal department shut the entire project down.

And to me, what the OP did was entirely predictable and foreseeable -- so obviously predictable, it's outrageously inconceivable that anyone with any experience at all in designing human intersecting systems would be at all surprised in this result. When UHF and Autonomy+ is released there will be accidents and even fatalities, as has been the case with Tesla and FSD. There will be vids of humans being stupid and also being stupid on purpose, because Humans.

Let's not pretend to be surprised by any of this, you know it's coming.

 

[Dark-Fx]

And to me, what the OP did was entirely predictable and foreseeable -- so obviously predictable

No way. OP watched some of the coverage but not enough of it to understand that what was being tested during the event wasn't what we were getting, and then didn't read the patch notes. Probably only one other person that did this.

 

[skyguyscott]

No way. OP watched some of the coverage but not enough of it to understand that what was being tested during the event wasn't what we were getting, and then didn't read the patch notes. Probably only one other person that did this.

I hate to report, but it's also entirely predictable and foreseeable that engineers, people with documented systematic personalities, find it incredulous that anyone would approach a system in any other way. I can't tell you how often engineers are dumbstruck when they witness test subjects routinely break their elegantly designed systems. One of our engineers used to paraphrase Douglas Adams, "Anyone who thinks they have invented a fool-proof system has never encountered a sufficiently motivated and ingenious fool."

 

[Jivian]

I had an incident today where I tried out UHF on a well-marked local road and it got confused in an area where the straight lane jogged over and a left turn lane was ended up in the same line as the straight lane before it (if that makes sense).

The vehicle sort of realized as it veered into the left turn lane but wasn't sure what to do when straddling between the two and ended up choosing left incorrectly. Had it kept going, it would have ran into a median. I was paying attention the whole time and quickly took over but it didn't inspire confidence.

At the moment, I'm feeling like UHF isn't particularly more useful to me than the enhanced highway assist until it can actually handle non-highway roads. Maybe it's because I'm in the bay area, but pretty much any highway type road was already mapped before UHF.

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