Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) is still proving to be Achilles Heels for many manufacturers including Tesla
In the world of autonomous technologies, emergency braking has been one of the most sought after functionalities in the automotive industry. Tesla Inc. has been the leader when it comes to autonomous technologies applied to cars. However, it seems that at this stage the technology is far from being perfect.
Over recent years, many car manufacturers have been part of various tests that have been conducted to check the efficacy of autonomous braking. In the process, some brands have failed miserably. The latest to fail is a Tesla Model 3 in China.
Surprising as it may sound since it was Tesla that failed, a brand that has pioneered in autonomous technologies in the automotive world, shows that the technology is far from being perfect. The clip shown below is an apt example of a debacle in the form of emergency braking. The video is from China where the Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) system (aka automatic braking) of Tesla Model 3 was being conducted.
Clip from China of a $TSLA Model 3, evidently equipped with the latest and greatest safety technology. My guess is the 4D dojo supercomputer recognizes that the pedestrian dummy is not a human and therefore sees no reason to perform evasive maneuvers. pic.twitter.com/R1mQqbxIy9
— Stultus (@StultusVox) September 20, 2020
Details of AEB Test
As shown in the clip, the electric sedan completely fails to take cognizance of the pedestrian (a dummy, of course!) in front of it before ramming onto it. Another old video, of the same model, is shown where a black colour electric sedan takes a turn before ramming itself into a dummy pedestrian crossing the street. In that case, the car did notice an upcoming object in front of it but by the time it did realise that it was too late.
The second clip is from a test conducted in the USA by AAA for checking the autonomous braking last year. Later it was revealed that all the study vehicles involved in the test had failed “to significantly mitigate the impact speed on a consistent basis”. The tests were conducted at a standard evaluation speed of 30 mph (48 kmph).
1/ AAA put out a report/study on the effectiveness of various pedestrian detection avoidance systems. Let's start off with some good ol' fashioned FUD: pic.twitter.com/PAslQsqQta
— ben k (@Benshooter) October 10, 2019
However, before you start scrutinizing Tesla and its technology, it wasn’t the only manufacturer to have failed this test due to sub-standard autonomous AEB technology. Earlier a Honda Civic had failed to clear this test too in a similarly remarkable fashion. Although a few models from Volkswagen and Volvo have had some success in this respect.
Future of AEB
AEB technology is one of the revolutionary techs in the automotive world but it has not reached a level where drivers can heavily rely on it. In a country, like India where traffic density is one of the highest in the world an AEB in a car could be very useful in the future. Although, it needs to be fully perfected before implementing it in a real-world scenario. Hopefully, makers will be able to crack it in the future.
