Tesla has collected a lot of new data about the area around the location where the company plans to introduce its first self-driving Robotaxi. This raises the question of whether the Robotaxi will perform as well in practice at other locations as Tesla claims.
Well-known hacker Green reports that Tesla has collected a lot of new data about the neighborhood where the company wants to unveil its first Robotaxi on October 10. It concerns the area around the Warner Bros Studio in Los Angeles. The question is therefore whether a demonstration of the self-driving Tesla taxi actually says anything about the presentations of the system at other locations, because Tesla does not collect extensive data about them.
Only with cameras and neural network
Tesla has been working for years on a self-driving system that would be able to drive anywhere without mapping the area in advance. That is a departure from the approach of current self-driving taxi providers, such as Google sister company Waymo and Cruise, who only work in a few cities and areas, partly with the help of precise maps and 3D data.
Tesla, however, wants to develop a system that can drive like humans, but that only uses cameras and neural networks. Tesla boss Elon Musk has been saying for years that such a fully self-driving system is almost ready, but it remains to be seen.
Controversial Tesla video from 2016
In 2016, Tesla first announced its plan for a self-driving car with a controversial demonstration video. It later turned out that it had been produced using a predetermined route that had previously been fully mapped in 3D. Tesla also drove the route multiple times to improve performance for the video. Still, the company pretended that this technology could be deployed anywhere in the world.
Suspicion of new manipulation
Tesla will unveil its self-driving Robotaxi in October, but the question is whether the company will pull the same ‘trick’ again as with the video in 2016. It certainly seems that way, now that the well-known hacker Green, who regularly reveals information about Tesla, has discovered that the car company has started a new initiative to collect a lot of extra data in an area near the ‘WB Studio’ in LA. In other words: around the location of the presentation of the Robotaxi.
Tesla is using data from its customers’ cars to collect more data in that area. According to Green, the company is using this to improve its neural networks for the self-driving system. This has led to reactions from people who suspect that Tesla is rigging a new self-driving demo. “It is legitimate to be concerned,” concludes Electrek.
Commonly used routes of influencers
In July, it also emerged that Tesla had optimized the test version of its driver assistance system Full Self-Driving (FSD) for the routes that Elon Musk and well-known influencers often drive. The company also collected more data about those areas. These were influencers who regularly make videos about how FSD works in practice. However, the system would perform less well in other locations than you see in some YouTube videos. Last week, Tesla posted its own demo video about FSD with the comment that the system ‘can drive you almost anywhere’.
Tesla will reveal the design of the Robotaxi in October, but a demonstration of the vehicle’s autonomous driving skills is also a possibility. One possibility is that Tesla will initially only launch an autonomous taxi service in a specific area, but that would be very similar to what Waymo has been doing for years.
Also check out our first impressions of the Waymo taxi.
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Source: www.bright.nl
