[strebler]

This problem is actually pretty obvious to fix and you don't even need a neural net - it can definitely be done "old school" computer vision.

Simply detect the presence of "flashing emergency lights" in the oncoming lane and disable autopilot when present. No object detector needed. The signal is so strong it's literally flashing extremely brightly in a regular, predictable pattern - any vision grad student should be able to figure this out.

Could there be false positives? Yep, but very few things will flash quite like that, and most half baked vision engineers can do this. The worst case is literally simply the driver taking over on occasion at night (maybe near strip clubs? lol)

[vagrantJin]

I don't think the problem is as simple as that. Sure flashy lights with reflectors confuse the current model sure, but can we consider that an edge-case and work from there? Also LED's flash too in a regular pattern too. I don't know though, seems like something that would have been accounted for as it's a pretty important part of driving awareness...maybe they didn't think people would want to stay on "full auto" when a police/Emergency vehicle is in the vicinity since you might have to do some sort of maneuver to get out of it's way. So yeah, I'll say it's an edge case for now.

Disclaimer: I'm an idiot so take my view with a boeing 747 load of salt

[nextweek2]

Whilst I agree with your point, I'd also like to see an additional strategy employed.

How about emergency vehicles broadcast on 5Ghz their intended route (for the next 300 meters) or just that they are blue light in the area.

This would only be active in a blue light situation. Manufacturers can then add a detection and warn the driver.

A while back I heard about car to car communications, but I heard next to nothing these days, this is a great use case if you ask me. If someone has more details of recent developments, I'd love to read more.

[bjtitus]

Good luck getting this rolled out in even a fraction of the emergency vehicles on the roads.

There are literally tense of thousands of these emergency departments and even more when you consider other vehicles which may be stopped roadside.

Perhaps something great to discuss for the future but not at all practical for the next few years or even decade.

[dividedbyzero]

> How about emergency vehicles broadcast on 5Ghz their intended route (for the next 300 meters)

How would the vehicle know what the driver intends to do in the next 15-30 seconds (depending on speed)?

[jareklupinski]

can't wait to start making clones of the device for taxi fleets so they too get all the green lights and clear lanes :)

[baybal2]

> This problem is actually pretty obvious to fix and you don't even need a neural net

So can be controlled collisions as such.

Simplest FMCW radars are more than enough for every emergency braking system on the market.

It's not uncommon to even use them in parallel with some more "brainy" radar imagers like on Mercedes cars. That is to make a collision preventable in case the main imaging computer hangs, or crashes.

[burntwater]

The solution of disabling autopilot in the presence of flashing emergency lights seems so incredibly obvious to me, that I can only assume I'm missing some glaring reason for it to not have been the case since day one.

[plain4]

This seems like it would create a great attack vector for Teslas. Setup a flashing red light on a corner and watch the Teslas fly off the road.