The LiDARs of March

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In This Issue

• Mark Rober’s LiDAR Video

• Tesla Takedown on the Ides of March

• Insurance, Anecdotally

• Have Something To Talk About?

Mark Rober’s LiDAR Video

Last Saturday, YouTuber Mark Rober dropped a video about lidar and how it worked. If you haven’t seen it, you should, and I’ve included it below. Part of the video isn’t automotive-related, but you’ll still find it interesting. The automotive part is very good, and I have some thoughts to share about it.

While there are no self-driving cars available today, I also understand the need to title videos to get people to click. I don’t like the practice, but I do understand it. Anyway, the premise is that Rober paints a foam “brick wall” to look like a road to see if Tesla’s Autopilot will see it and stop, or drive through it like Wile E. Coyote does in the Road Runner cartoons.

As a benchmark, he also has a Luminar-supplied Lexus RX350 equipped with lidar to perform the same series of tests. The purpose of the video is to determine if a vision-only system works as well as more expensive sensors.

If you pay any attention to the automotive industry at all, you already know the answer. That is, of course, “No.” Vision-only is hardly effective, and nearly every automaker combines a camera-based system with radar or other technologies. Predictably, the Tesla does poorly in the test.

Some things I’d like to point out, though. Rober does give the Tesla a fighting chance by using Autopilot and not just relying on the Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) system. Crash testing, like what’s done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) tests the AEB systems when giving a safety score.

Secondly, we don’t know what the wall is made out of. While it fails the test, the driver wasn’t injured so one could laughably argue the system worked fine because it knew the wall wasn’t solid. Of course, a camera-based system could not know that.

Additionally, when other agencies test AEB systems, the stuff they hit often is foam mixed with other materials so that it appears to radar systems as something genuinely solid and should be stopped.

This is all stuff you should know, because you should know that the testing that crash test companies perform is more difficult to pass than Rober’s tests. That doesn’t mean Rober’s tests are bad — on the contrary, they’re quite good — just that it emphasizes how badly Tesla performed when you realize the tests weren’t as strict as what a group like IIHS does.

Before he attempts to drive through the wall as the penultimate reveal for the video, he points out that he can see some differences between the wall and the real world. He’s using his brain, years of experience driving, and other human sensors to realize that that’s a wall.

Autopilot doesn’t do that.

Elon Musk has long said that Tesla is using a camera-only system because humans only use eyes to drive. Of all of the dumb things he’s ever said, that’s probably the dumbest. Humans use all sorts of sensors to drive, and process all of those inputs through the most advanced computer ever created — the brain. The brain uses advanced reasoning. It does real-time threat assessment. It actively learns and remembers things from years and years of driving. Even then, humans still make mistakes.

A quality safety system uses cameras for sure, but those cameras are supplemented by advanced radar units. In some cases, they’re even supplemented by lidar. Though lidar is still pricey, I do expect to see more and more of it implemented in the future. Not as a replacement for cameras or radar, but as an additional sensor for the car to use to help avoid incidents and save lives.

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Tesla Takedown on the Ides of March

Because I live quite a long way from any Tesla retail store, I haven’t had the opportunity to check out one of the #TeslaTakedown protests in person. After being encouraged by a friend to come out on Saturday, I headed to the “We The People” protest at the Tesla location in West Bloomfield, Michigan to see what’s what.

(Editor’s note: Wait, I’m the editor. Anyway, after President Trump’s Tesla showcase last week where he stated that Tesla protesting is illegal and could be considered an act of domestic terrorism, I didn’t take any pictures from the event. I also didn’t record any interviews, and outside of the host of the event (which was public), I will not be using any names.)

At its peak, there were approximately 50 people in attendance, all protesting peacefully. It was quite a windy day, which made holding on to protest signs and flags quite the challenge, but everyone was in good spirits. West Bloomfield is a town of means, and the streets are lined with pristine sidewalks and benches, making it almost a luxury to be able to protest in front of the Tesla location.

Before I walked up, I wanted to observe some of the traffic. I’ve seen some United Auto Workers (UAW) strike protests in the past, and I’d argue that more people were beeping at the Tesla protesters in solidarity than you’d find in front of an assembly plant.

All types of vehicles, from all manufacturers, were honking in support. I saw a woman driving a Porsche Panamera who beeped as she buzzed by, and a person in a Bently Flying Spur unbelievably turned around to drive by a second time so they could show their support.

I then headed over to talk to some folks, and as someone who is quite socially awkward and introverted around people I don’t know, the group was quite welcoming. A couple of folks I chatted with were some of the friendliest people. While they are, understandably, upset and angry, the whole vibe was totally fun and lighthearted.

When some trolls would drive by, flipping off the group or yelling explicative to the crowd, most of the crowd would just jeer back or boo. One person showed up to “stream live on X” the event, presumably to troll the group, but everyone kept their wits and just rolled with it.

Several times the police drove by, but they didn’t even give the group a look — let alone scrutinize the protestors — which is always a good sign that the city has no issues with Constitutionally-protected speech as long as you’re not trespassing.

Only several people visited the Tesla store during the protests, including a family in an F-150 to test drive a Cybertruck. But for a Saturday afternoon with good weather — there was a big gap in the rain — it was really shocking how little traffic was happening at that store. The end of the quarter is the end of this month, and based on just what I witnessed it’s not going to go well.

Not every protestor was there just to protest Elon Musk. People are concerned about Trump’s threats to annex Canada and Greenland. Others are concerned about Social Security. One older couple was there with a massive Ukrainian flag. Admittedly, it’s nice to be around these folks because it’s nice to know the world hasn’t gone completely mad.

That brings me to the organizer of the event. Kaden Howard is a 17-year-old gentleman from White Lake. He was there with his family and honestly is such a breath of fresh air.

At just 17, he couldn’t vote in the last election. But he’s politically savvy and doesn’t like what Musk and Trump are doing to the government. He told me he had wanted to join the military and be a Marine, which I think is a great goal, but he didn’t want to be part of mass deportations or whatever else Trump might make the military do over the next couple of years.

He spends a lot of time on Reddit, and that’s how he found out about the Tesla Takedown events. He had just searched for protests and that’s what came up, and missed an opportunity to attend one the previous weekend. So he decided to set one up himself.

Mom says she wanted to encourage him to have his own beliefs and not discourage him from finding his way. He credits some other members of his family for not having the same beliefs as him, which forced him to research his side to be better prepared to argue his points the next time he had a chance to debate them.

He’s a smart guy, and if more young people are like him then we might just make it through this chaos in one piece.

As for the people who were likely still on Team Trump, it appeared that the larger the vehicle the more likely the group would be flipped off. That wasn’t universal, of course, but a trend. If the vehicle was a non-Tesla EV, it was almost a sure thing to get at least a wave. Plus, there was even a honk in solidarity from an Amazon Rivian. I even saw a Model Y give a beep and I wanted to yell, “Go to StealMyTesla.com!”

I think my biggest takeaway is people are obviously upset and angry, but the protests themselves are peaceful and fun. The vibes are right. If you’re thinking about attending one, give it a shot.

Insurance, Anecdotally

When talking about climate change, and how our government says it doesn’t exist, I often point to insurance companies. Yes, Trump can say all he wants that it’s not real and that companies who have taken money in the past from the government in support of climate change initiatives now are criminals, but that doesn’t make climate change not real.

Insurance companies know this. They know this because their one goal in life is to make money, and they make money by not paying out claims. That’s why people who used to be able to get insurance where they live can’t now because of global climate change affecting the weather.

The same is true in automotive. If the writing is on the wall that you’ll lose the insurance company money, they won’t insure you. That’s why if you have a crap driving record you’re either more expensive to insure, or unable to insure.

It appears, at least anecdotally, that some Tesla owners are worried about that as the values of the cars plummet and the risk of vandalism increases. They’re not worried about taking a loss, but rather not being able to get insurance.

If that’s true, then Tesla is likely in an even stickier wicket than originally thought.

Have Something To Talk About?

I know people in all various aspects of automotive read and enjoy this newsletter. If you come across something you want to talk about, especially if it’s related to dealing with the Trump administration, I’m interested in having that conversation. I will protect your identity.

You can more securely email me at my Proton Mail account at [email protected]. You can also use Signal at chadkirchner.1701 (because Star Trek, duh), or if you view this page in a Tor browser you can access my super secure OnionShare drop box at http://oa4vm2wu3ms2fhsf23kbslbpq27fajs6dfn2iizyk3sy6lrbaz3logad.onion/.

If you’re in PR and use any of these methods to send me a pitch, I’ll be unhappy. Use my other contact methods for that, please.