There are different ways to stop or catch an autonomous car on autopilot, and there are some that will surprise you.
In general, autonomous cars are quite safe, since they have an unrivaled technological network capable of adapting to each of the circumstances on the road and obviously capable of acting as autopilot when the driver cannot take control of the car.
But surely you have ever wondered what would happen if the driver of the vehicle did not take control at the wheel when required by the system, for example if he has fallen asleep or has lost consciousness.
In these cases there are several ways or procedures that authorities or even users can use to stop a vehicle controlled solely by the autopilot, although it may not work with all models depending on the present technology.
this is far and away the funniest post about teslas pic.twitter.com/4WQvM0Nx6Q
– cait (@kittynouveau) September 17, 2021
The CEO of Tesla, Elon muskrecently explained how to stop one of your electric cars when you are using autopilot or full autonomous driving (FSD). It would be in those moments when the driver was unconscious or injured.
To stop a Tesla from the outside while being guided by the autopilot, a circle of chalk, salt or paint could be drawn on the road trapping the vehicle inside, next to dashed lines.
This is because the lines would function as invisible but visible barriers by the various sensors of the vehicle, a known trick that is sometimes not possible due to the circumstances of the moment.
This road paint trick does look like it would work on Tesla’s autopilot but not on full autonomous driving (FSD). On this last case, Elon Musk adds that in the latter case a circle of cones would be required to catch a Tesla..
Driver’s life is saved by AP. https://t.co/wpWq9kLSln
– Ray4Tesla⚡️🚘☀️🔋 (@ ray4tesla) September 18, 2021
Another common way to stop one of these vehicles is the one used by the police. To do this, the police car would be placed in front of the autonomous vehicle, slowly reducing its speed, and thus blocking the speed of the Tesla, which would also be forced to reduce its speed to a stop.
There is still a lot of mystery and doubts about the operation of autonomous cars on conventional roads, but we are already seeing it especially in the United States and less in Europe, so it will be interesting to see where we are heading in the coming years.