Tesla Autopilot confused by billboard

Tesla owner Andy Weedman has discovered that his Tesla was registering a giant stop sign printed on a billboard as a real traffic sign, and so halting in the middle of the road.

Weedman tweeted and recorded a video of the Tesla stopping for the billboard, referring to it as an 'edge case'. The discovery prompted commentators to observe that autonomous cars have a long way to go before they are truly fit for purpose. 

Others went further, arguing that 'the world is absolutely crammed with out-of-the-ordinary situations we call edge cases,' and that it will 'likely take more than patchwork updates and fixes to actually reach full autonomy'. 

System

• Tesla Autopilot, Full-self Driving

News, commentary, analysis

• https://twitter.com/andyweedman/status/1382459653863378944

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OdOmU58zOw&t=2s

• https://futurism.com/the-byte/tesla-slamming-brakes-sees-stop-sign-billboard

• https://jalopnik.com/this-billboard-that-confuses-tesla-autopilot-is-a-good-1846698527

• https://knowtechie.com/teslas-autopilot-is-apparently-getting-confused-by-a-billboard/

• https://www.republicworld.com/entertainment-news/whats-viral/man-says-tesla-kept-slamming-brakes-in-area-with-no-red-lights-elon-musk-has-epic-reply.html

• https://wonderfulengineering.com/watch-tesla-autopilot-keeps-slamming-the-brakes-whenever-it-sees-a-billboard-with-a-stop-sign/