I would be surprised if it turns out that those self-driving cars don't have object permanence. Making things move around without a physical model looks like a really nasty infinite bug-breeder.
For the longest time, at least the visual representation of trains at a level crossing strongly implied challenges around object permanence for Tesla.
I will say that I recognize that the visual representation may not be a 1:1 (in fact quite certainly isn't) mapping of the computer's "world view".
But it was quite ridiculous and definitely disconcerting seeing a level crossing with a train going through it and seeing the Tesla I was in acting like there was a traffic light that was erratically going red, while dozens of semi trucks flickered in and out of existence across the screen in front of me.
> strongly implied challenges around object permanence for Tesla
Anyone who has ever ridden in a Tesla knows they have no real perception of the world around them. Even just driving down the road they show icons of the things around them, which will randomly appear and disappear or change from busses to pedestrians to cars.
And yet a common thread in post-mortems on so many self-driving car collisions boils down to, "the car doesn't have object permanence."
It may have some ability to track specific things in specific ways in a manner that's hard-coded by engineers. But if that's the same thing as an actual mental model of the world then that implies that we've had a significant piece of AGI in the form of many video games for about half a century now and just not known it.
I will say that I recognize that the visual representation may not be a 1:1 (in fact quite certainly isn't) mapping of the computer's "world view".
But it was quite ridiculous and definitely disconcerting seeing a level crossing with a train going through it and seeing the Tesla I was in acting like there was a traffic light that was erratically going red, while dozens of semi trucks flickered in and out of existence across the screen in front of me.