Tens of thousands of kilometers on test tracks, tens of millions in the real world. To train autonomous cars, they have to complete many, many kilometers of driving to capture the unpredictability of the world. In addition to a few standard situations that occur again and again in road traffic, there are millions of marginal scenarios that occur so rarely that it is almost impossible to capture them all, let alone train autonomous vehicles for them.
Cruise once published such a compilation of unusual encounters:
Cruise also once released rather disturbing videos of people deliberately jumping in front of autonomous cars on the road to “test” their reaction. They do not take into account the fact that the laws of physics also apply to autonomous cars. Braking distances are not shorter just because it’s a robotaxi.
Kodiak Robotics in Mountain View also once showed an impressive video of vehicle behavior when a tire bursts:
Now Tesla has also shown videos of 16 test scenarios for common traffic incidents for the first time, in which Tesla Full Self Driving (FSD) is being practiced.
- Reverse Cut-in (Occluded)
- Peeking (Occluded)
- Left Turn Cut-In
- Parallel Cut-In (Occluded)
- Yield for Oncoming During Overtake
- Stop Sign Right-of-Way Violator
- Door Opening During Overtake
- Right Turn Harsh Braking
- Left Turn Across Path
- Cut-Out to Static Cone
- Dynamic Debris (Dropped Cone)
- U-Turn Cut-In (Occluded)
- High Speed Cut-Out to Stationary Vehicle
- High Speed Harsh Braking
- High Speed Stationary Child
- High Speed Crossing Child
Here are these videos:
Waymo also reports on similar test scenarios, several of which the Google sister company has presented in a blog entitled Waymo’s Collision Avoidance Testing. Here is an example of a pedestrian suddenly crossing the road:
And here is one where a cyclist turns into the road from an obscured view:
This article was also published in German.
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