TIL: Tesla vs. Stoplights

Data Quality Strikes Again

Vincent Warmerdam koaning.io
2021-06-05

Tesla cars come with software that tries to interpret the surrounding of the car. Sometimes it gets it wrong though and this is nice example.

This is what the computer makes of the surrounding.

Figure 1: This is what the computer makes of the surrounding.

The car seems to predict that there are traffic lights spawning on the ground.

This is the viewpoint from the car.

Figure 2: This is the viewpoint from the car.

This is actually partially true, because the truck ahead of the car is carrying traffic lights.

Yep. The truck is carrying traffic lights.

Figure 3: Yep. The truck is carrying traffic lights.

You might argue that “the computer is doing it right” while you can also argue that it isn’t. The main lesson is that these systems will never be perfect if their training data doesn’t reflect reality and reality includes a truck carrying traffic lights.