Tesla car accident will make a new car feature popular

Perhaps because of the huge media attention, there have been a lot of reports about Tesla car accidents recently. Last week’s car accident is expected to make a car function popular.

Last weekend, a fatal car accident occurred in Houston, USA. A 2019 Model S was driving at high speed and turned a corner, then hit a roadside tree and caught fire. The fire burned the car into a shell and the two men in the car died on the spot.

Model S accident scene on April 17, 2021

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) quickly intervened in the investigation. The police found that when the accident happened, a man was sitting in the passenger seat, another was sitting in the back seat, and no one was in the driver's seat. Based on this, the police judged that the car's automatic assisted driving function was activated when the accident happened.

The two victims in the car accident were 59-year-old anesthesiologist Varner and 69-year-old financial consultant Talbert.

Texas police officer Herman said investigators are "100 percent confident" that no one was driving the car at the time of the accident, but they are not sure whether the car was using Autopilot (automatic assisted driving) or FSD (full self-driving capability) at the time.

But Tesla CEO Elon Musk immediately refuted the accusation on Twitter that Tesla was in autopilot mode at the time of the accident.

"So far, the recovered data logs show that Autopilot was not engaged, nor did this vehicle purchase FSD," he wrote. "Also, Autopilot requires lane markings to be engaged, which were not present on this street."

Musk discusses the accident with Tesla fans on Twitter

Tesla fans also insist that Autopilot can't operate unless someone is behind the wheel, but according to tests by Consumer Reports, drivers can easily trick the system, activating Autopilot and controlling the vehicle for long periods of time without anyone behind the wheel.

The tester first activated Autopilot and then adjusted the car to a stopped state. He then hung a weight chain on the steering wheel to simulate the driver's hand pressure and fastened the driver's seat belt. He then moved to the passenger seat and adjusted the speed button on the steering wheel to accelerate the Model Y from a stopped state.

Consumer Reports releases test video showing how to trick Autopilot

On the closed track, the driver's seat was empty, but the Model Y drove three or four kilometers and reached a maximum speed of 48 kilometers per hour.

The tester put his foot on the brake to prevent accidents.

According to the standards of the American Society of Automotive Engineers, Tesla Autopilot is considered a Level 2 "partially automated" automatic assisted driving system, which still requires the driver to keep their hands on the steering wheel and their eyes on the road to ensure safety.

"I'm shocked at how easy it is to fool the system," said Jack Fisher, director of auto testing at Consumer Reports. "When you have an automated driving system like this and the system explicitly requires the driver to take over at any time, the manufacturer must ensure that someone is actually driving." Consumer Reports pointed out that a seat sensor could actually solve this problem.

These flaws expose the backwardness of Tesla's driver monitoring system (DMS). If this function was available, could these people easily put the car into autopilot mode? Definitely not!

The driver monitoring system monitors the driver's presence and current status in real time. DMS can provide alerts to the driver and initiate intervention to help the driver control the vehicle. The driver monitoring system ensures that the driver controls the car as the situation requires. In addition to the driver, the occupant monitoring system is very useful for understanding the condition of the occupants and even providing a tailored environment for specific occupants.

At the Munich Shanghai Electronics Show which just concluded, Melexis, a leading supplier of automotive sensors, happened to talk to us about the latest developments in DMS. Chen Jun, Sales and Application Director for Asia Pacific at Melexis Electronic Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., said that for the sake of automotive safety, Europe has planned to list DMSl as a mandatory standard for automobiles, and DMS will definitely become popular in the future!

Chen Jun, Sales and Application Director, Asia Pacific, Melexis Electronic Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

"In our opinion, the DMS driver monitoring system has gradually become popular in the past two years. DMS will definitely be a trend. This time we bring the TOF three-dimensional sensor MLX75027 with VGA pixels. We are currently the only manufacturer of VGA-functional TOF sensors in mass production. We developed the gaze demonstration together with Eyeware. As a pioneer in the field of eye tracking, Eyeware uses 3D time-of-flight cameras to overcome the limitations of infrared-based eye tracking technology. The MLX75027 3D time-of-flight (ToF) sensor has VGA resolution and provides powerful line of sight and head tracking capabilities for the in-cabin monitoring system (DMS) even in sunlight." He introduced.

Melexis DMS demonstration at the booth

According to him, Melexis uses iToF. Time-of-Flight (ToF) is a technology that uses the time of flight of light. There are two methods. One is dToF, which stands for direct Time-of-Flight. As the name implies, dToF directly measures the time of flight. The concept of iToF corresponds to dToF, and the full name of iToF is indirect Time-of-Flight, which literally means indirect light flight time. The so-called indirect means that iToF indirectly measures the flight time of light by measuring the phase shift, rather than directly measuring the flight time of light.

iToF transmits a modulated infrared light signal into the scene, and the sensor then receives the light signal reflected back from the object to be measured in the scene. The phase difference between the transmitted signal and the received signal is calculated based on the accumulated charge during the exposure (integration) time, thereby obtaining the depth of the target object.

Chen Jun said that high-pixel sensors are generally used in cars, such as iToF. DTOF is more like a lidar used outside the car, with relatively low accuracy, longer distances, and poorer accuracy.

"Now some customers are combining our iToF with the original ultrasound for blind spot monitoring, and some are doing face recognition to open the door, etc. The pixels have reached VGA level and there are automotive-grade products. We must be the industry leader. We have shipped more than 1 million ToF products in total. The earliest mass-produced one was in the BMW model, which used HMI gesture recognition. The car must have the DMS function, and I believe DMS will be very popular." He pointed out.

Regarding DMS's privacy protection and user acceptance, he pointed out that when it becomes a national standard, everyone has to accept it, and it will become a habit after you slowly accept it. Just like drunk driving, before there was a standard for drunk driving, everyone was disgusted by why there was such a regulation, but after there was a standard for drunk driving, everyone accepted it. Another reason is that some people prefer to be monitored. When you drive, you will feel tired, but your eyes will squint. At this time, you think you can still drive, but if there is really a system to warn you, you will know that I should take a break. I personally think that it will be an acceptable and universal standard in the future.

Regarding privacy protection, he pointed out that the principle of ToF is a near-infrared light. After it is emitted, through the flight time, when you receive it, each point has depth information, which helps you form a three-dimensional picture. It is not a real photo, and the person who sees you is not there directly. "If you have concerns about the camera, TOF technology will definitely be much better. And when you don't have light at night, it actually has its advantages, because it does not need light, the emitted light is reflected back, and no visible light is needed." He pointed out.