[Balin] Them's the brakes

[BalinTheDwarf]

A car is traveling down a straight road at dusk when it begins to repeatedly decelerate and accelerate. Why?

OOATP rules apply

[Sarisberie2]

Can we exclude problems with the car itself, mechanical or otherwise?

[BalinTheDwarf]

Can we exclude problems with the car itself, mechanical Yes or otherwise? Yope

[BalinTheDwarf]

More specifically, it depends on how you define the word "problem."

[Biograd1]

Is it being driven by a human driver? self-driving? Is it an actual, physical car in real life (as opposed to, e.g., a car in a movie or video game)?

[Sundowner64]

Is the driver accelerating and decelerating the car? (as opposed to the car doing that automatically, without the driver's intervention)

[GalFisk]

Is the road straight in both the left-and-right and the up-and-down direction?

[BalinTheDwarf]

Is it being driven by a human driver? self-driving? This
Is it an actual, physical car in real life (as opposed to, e.g., a car in a movie or video game)? It is indeed an actual physical car

Is the driver accelerating and decelerating the car? (as opposed to the car doing that automatically, without the driver's intervention) Yes and No, since (as discovered above) the car is self-driving

Is the road straight in both the left-and-right and the up-and-down direction? Yes

[Sundowner64]

Relevant that this happens at dusk?

[GalFisk]

Does it periodically perceive that there's an obstacle?

[BalinTheDwarf]

Relevant that this happens at dusk? Yes

Does it periodically perceive that there's an obstacle? I wouldn't say an "obstacle," No

[Biograd1]

Does the self-driving AI have more difficulty detecting something (such as lane markings, road signs, etc.) under low light than under brighter light? so every time the car passes into a shadow, it slows down for safety reasons to make sure it can still detect stuff in enough time to avoid making errors?

[Sundowner64]

Did the car have an adapted cruise control (which got distracted by infrared light from the setting sun)?

[BalinTheDwarf]

Does the self-driving AI have more difficulty detecting something (such as lane markings, road signs, etc.) under low light than under brighter light? No so every time the car passes into a shadow, it slows down for safety reasons to make sure it can still detect stuff in enough time to avoid making errors? No

Did the car have an adapted cruise control (which got distracted by infrared light from the setting sun)? No

[GalFisk]

Is it perceiving something, making it slow down, which makes the perception go away somehow, making it speed up, and the cycle repeats?

[doriana_]

Does the car mistake the sunset for a red light?

[BalinTheDwarf]

Is it perceiving something, making it slow down, which makes the perception go away somehow, making it speed up, and the cycle repeats? Yes

Does the car mistake the sunset for a red light? Almost exactly.

****SPOILER****

The self-driving Tesla kept mistaking the moon for a yellow traffic light.

[Sarisberie2]

I love this! POTY contender <3

[Biograd1]

Did this actually happen, or is it just your imagination that it might?

[BalinTheDwarf]

Biograd - I saw it as a video on Reddit. The link is the word "SPOILER" in the spoiler post.

[GalFisk]

Haha, reminds me of one I saw recently where a Tesla saw a train, and thought it was a series of trucks fused together.

I think if machines could somehow learn object permanence, it could do wonders for self-driving.