this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
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Showerthoughts

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Tesla is exiting consumer space because Self-Driving has hit the same fundamental limits as LLMs (lemmy.world)
submitted 15 hours ago by violentfart@lemmy.world to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
32 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Current language models (misnomered as “AI”) are great at some things but fail at any real thinking.

Self-Driving works decently in predictable environments but anything outside of those limits can make it literally crash and burn.

Public road transportation by individuals just has too many cases where real decision-making is required.

Despite all their resources, I think they’ve given up. All the brilliant engineers and scientists have given up, because they know what we’ve suspected for a long time.

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[–] DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 24 minutes ago* (last edited 24 minutes ago)

Yup. Self-driving cars will never truly be possible with unpredictable humans still driving the other cars on the road. Maybe if you could put a true AGI into a car.

We could have self-driving cars with today's technology if the only other vehicles on the road were also self-driving and all interconnected via a mesh network with each other and the other critical road infrastructure like intersections.

But if on today's roads if you want a truly Level 5 self-driving car where you get in the car in your driveway and say "take me to Burger King", you'll need an AGI in the car.

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I still remember redditors telling me with supreme confidence in 2015 that there would be self driving cars in five years, all truckers would be unemployed, and there would be no more traffic accidents.

I bet they don't remember that though.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

They are looking down at you, laughing from Mars.

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 1 points 47 minutes ago

Hope they enjoy the oxide-filled soil and the lack of air.

[–] bluefootedbooby@sopuli.xyz 31 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

It has hit the limits because moron Musk insists on Teslas using only camera, and not camera + radar and laser, like other successful self-driving cars do.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 59 minutes ago

not camera + radar and laser, like other successful self-driving cars do.

camera + radar and laser ....and guys in the Phillipines.

[–] db_null@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 8 hours ago

Ditching lidar was madness, at least if you care about safety. Musk might’ve had a few brain cells left at one point, but the nonstop dose of horse‑tranquilizer is clearly wearing him out. He and his pals love llms because they see themselves in those bots: great at spitting out slick word chains, but with zero real understanding of anything.

[–] finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world 12 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Musk not going to Mars anymore. Musk exiting Tesla consumer space. Ha! Ha! Haaaa! The inevitable collapse of his entire house of cards has begun! Soon he will join the fent zombies he so despised, leaning in the street!

[–] super_user_do@feddit.it 3 points 8 hours ago

He will never get poor

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 30 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Self-Driving works decently in predictable environments but anything outside of those limits can make it literally crash and burn.

Public road transportation by individuals just has too many cases where real decision-making is required.

Despite all their resources, I think they’ve given up. All the brilliant engineers and scientists have given up, because they know what we’ve suspected for a long time.

I mean, Waymo is still actively expanding to new cities and expanding its coverage areas within cities.

Tesla may have given up on the consumer market for that reason if they were banking on a super llm based self driving system, or it could just be because they got burned when Elon rallied consumers against them.

[–] galoisghost@aussie.zone 38 points 13 hours ago (4 children)

Waymo palms off the hard decisions to a human in the Philippines.

[–] Kushan@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

And every one of those decisions is more data they'll feed the machine.

There has to be a point where you've got enough edge cases and bizarre situations where you have the data to train the LLM on how to deal with them.

I doubt our dystopian future is completely human-less, but you can probably plot a graph that projects the number of human interventions required for every thousand miles driven and that graph probably has a trend going downwards.

Then you move to another city that has more edge cases and repeat the process. Google can afford the slow rollout, Tesla can't.

[–] acantharea@lemmy.world 15 points 13 hours ago

New innovations in slave labor

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 10 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

And yet they still can’t move the car during an emergency.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/next-level-dystopian-waymo-robotaxi-150000054.html

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 1 points 5 minutes ago* (last edited 3 minutes ago)

The people in the Phillipines can't move the car, but their event response team can move the car at a very slow speed to get it off the road. E.g highway lane to shoulder.

Last I heard they claim to have never used it though outside testing it.

[–] dis_honestfamiliar@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 12 hours ago

Maybe the overseas driver was on lunch break.

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

But trans people in Kansas can't drive... How TF is that even legal?

[–] SinningStromgald@lemmy.world 13 points 14 hours ago (5 children)

Supposedly Musky is going to build robots instead of cars.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 59 minutes ago

not supposed, he shut down two Teslur models and is tooling to make sexbots.

[–] MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 hours ago

Onwards to the next grift!

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 4 points 8 hours ago

he build taxis that runs people over.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 11 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Right after we colonize Mars. Any day now!

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 8 hours ago

to be fair with ketamine, elons musks brain is already there.

[–] axh@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

Next year!

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 13 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Hold on, wait, whoa, really? The great and respectable Tesla has to exit the consumer space? What? No! Surely big brain genuis can find a solution! They can't? Wow. I am sure each and every one of you will have wet sloppy pillows tonight, from all the crying! I am shocked! Shocked I say!!!

.......actually, not that shocked.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 points 8 hours ago

elon is probably hopefully to leech of govt contracts ever.

[–] db2@lemmy.world 5 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Elon won't give up, he can't fathom not being right about something.

[–] zeet@lemmy.world 13 points 13 hours ago

Usually far right about something

[–] Darkmoon_AU@lemmy.zip -1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

You lost me at "misnomered as AI". Artificial intelligence as a branch of Computer Science is a broad field covering not only LLMs - themselves a sub-branch of Deep Learning - but also Fuzzy Logic, Bayesian Reasoning and other statistical methods.

By any canonical definition; LLMs very much are AI.

Perhaps you meant 'AGI' as in Artificial General Intelligence which means 'human level across every domain'. Or, perhaps you know this and we're just being snarky about their current capabilities.

[–] scbasteve@lemmy.world 18 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

They're saying that people are now referring to AI as LLMs only.

Misnomer: "an adjective used to describe a person, place, or thing that has been given an incorrect, inappropriate, or unsuitable name or designation"

It's like when you keep calling all squares rectangles. Yes it is technically correct, however, its an unsuitable name. Its misleading.

[–] keanu0396@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 hours ago

I would also add to this and highlight that the average person does not differentiate between AI and AGI - I'd bet most haven't even heard of AGI

[–] lung@lemmy.world -5 points 14 hours ago

Tesla sunset two of their models, three still for sale and being built. Definitely not giving up on AI or FSD, they are doubling down on cybercab, and elons pay package is tied to FSD subscriptions. If anything, the messaging is they are ramping up AI investment. Humans crash and burn regularly too. Brilliant engineers have definitely not given up, I'm not sure why anyone would think that. AI has continued to improve pretty steadily in all areas (see benchmarks)