Drive in a fully self-driving Tesla

Brangwyn Jones is quite proud of his white car, a Tesla Model Y. Even more since March 29 when the American automaker sent him an update to his navigation system.

His car is now equipped with FSD (Full Self-Driving), also known as a fully autonomous driving computer. With this technology, the driver only has to indicate his destination and the vehicle takes care of the rest.

His Tesla drives within speed limits, brakes, turns left or right with a turn signal, automatically stops in front of a stop sign… all thanks to eight synchronized external cameras and twelve ultrasonic sensors that use intelligence artificial to make safe decisions.

After charging his Tesla, Brangwyn Jones goes for a walk in Medicine Hat, a city in eastern Alberta, where he works. He is part of a minority of insiders. Elon Musk, chief executive of the firm, announced that in April there were 100,000 North Americans selected to test the FSDfully autonomous driving computerstill in its beta version.

It’s like a student driving. He learns. I am the father who corrects. I always have my hands near the steering wheel and I always check my mirrors, just in case.says the French-speaking soldier.

How to be a tester?

If Brangwyn Jones is among the users of the system in preview, it is no coincidence. First because he requested it after paying $10,000 to acquire the option, but above all because his driving was analyzed for several days by Tesla, which has access to navigation data.

The manufacturer studies the behavior of each candidate driver. His score, from one to a hundred, drops if he brakes suddenly, takes too tight turns and follows other cars too closely. I got 98 or 99says Brangwyn Jones who considers himself lucky.

It’s really cool to be able to let the car drive. We see the future here. It’s going to take years, but in 30 years, all cars will communicate with each other. The 40-year-old is convinced that this technology will reduce the number of accidents and traffic jams on the roads.

computer FSDfully autonomous driving computer is not at its optimal version. These thousands of test drivers allow Tesla to have daily data used to improve the final product.

Inconsistencies and red lights burned

Errors exist and certain situations annoy Brangwyn Jones. There, we are in the right lane, but the car has not seen that this lane is only for a right turn. I will therefore intervene. We don’t want to frustrate other drivershe explains.

At other times, navigation can be dangerous. When, for example, his Tesla knows he should take the next left, but does not anticipate it and pulls into the right on a four-lane road. The system waits until the last minute to change lanes, except that four lanes are cuthe asks.

On Youtubevideos show Tesla cars, with navigation FSDfully autonomous driving computer. , running a red light. The driver can brake at any time to regain control and correct a trajectory. If the car turns red, the driver has to pay the ticket, not Tesla.

Useful technology?

This technological future is interestingaccording to Martin Lavallière, professor in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi and member of the Quebec Road Safety Research Network.

Perfected artificial intelligence could reduce deaths on the roads, he says, but the driver behind the wheel will always have to remain vigilant and responsive.

Automation has this flaw: the person will have more and more confidence that the technology will work all the time and at all times, but this confidence comes with a loss of driving practice and knowledge of their environment.believes Martin Lavallière.

Brangwyn Jones remains convinced that artificial intelligence on board will one day improve road safety.

Last night, there was a pedestrian dressed in black on the side of the road that I hadn’t seen. The car stopped. Driving a car without artificial intelligence is a thing of the past for this Albertan.

A still distant future

If Elon Musk advocates that navigation FSDfully autonomous driving computer allows it to roll in the streets of Austin, Texas city of the brand’s headquarters, without intervening most of the time, this technology should not be available for a long time.

At least that’s the opinion of Randy Goebel, a professor of computer science at the University of Alberta, who has worked on artificial intelligence and self-driving car projects for the German automotive group Volkswagen and the Chinese company Huawei.

The real challenge will be to have a network of infrastructures to match the intelligence of these autonomous cars. 5G, for example, can allow them to communicate with each other quite quickly. It will take time to deploy it throughout the territoryhe believes.

According to Randy Goebel, Ottawa’s recent ban on Huawei will set Canada back from developing self-driving cars. We will have to wait 10 years to see a serious advance for motorists.