Our garbage collectors often leave the bins in the street after dumping them. Can be a hazard that needs to be recognized and driven around

 

Exactly.

I lost a side mirror on one of my minivans due to a garbage can.

 

Around here garbage cans are MUCH larger than street signs (and most people too) and can be in the roadway - afaicr all street signs are out of the roadway. Street signs are usually in the same place day-to-day and month-to-month while trash cans tend to move around a lot - like they're on wheels or something.

In any case trash cans are a daily moving obstacle to be observed and avoided. Street signs are informative only - no need to change your driving path to avoid them.

 

I guess it's different around here. Cans are typically left just OFF the roadway. So for me, when I'm seeing garbage cans, I kinda expect to see mailboxes too.

 

Agree that in some areas it's not THAT BIG of a deal. However think of it this way instead... Cars/Bikes/People/Trucks/Pickups that this system visualizes I think you'd agree is 100% a must cause they are objects that move that you could hit. Trash cans are the same way... Stop Signs, Red lights, street markings (outside of changes to roadways) are permanent. It is extremely likely that at least several times a week that trash cans could be in an "unexpected location" and in extreme circumstances IE super windy day, might be in the middle of the roadway.

Trash cans will probably the first of many "roadway hazards" , like traffic cones, that they will have to program. My guess is when the look at the data coming in to the cars traffic cones were the number 1 hazard, followed by trash cans, hence the early addition.

I hope this thought process helps

 

The visualizations actually help the Tesla engineers test the system, to see what it's seeing without needing add-on equipment. This can be important, because ultimately when testing every possible situation, you don't want engineers to have anything a normal driver wouldn't have attached to the car.

 

There's also the fact that they're one of the most common obstacles people face in their own driveways. On HW 2.5 we've had ours read as a pedestrian before, which can be confusing/alarming. (I know that HW 2.5 doesn't/won't get the new visualizations, but it does demonstrate a use case.)

Perhaps at some point Tesla should implement a generic "obstacle" object in the visualization. There's a lot of stuff that can show up in a roadway, but doesn't show up very often. Will there be separate visualizations for, say, sofas? I doubt it. Cones have a special meaning in the driving environment. Cars, trucks, motorcycles, and pedestrians can all be expected to exhibit certain ranges of motion. At some point animals should be added as well, for the same reason. But big lumps of stationary stuff are pretty much just big lumps of stuff, no matter what their original purpose--an FSD car should just stop and/or drive around them if there's room. So those kinds of things won't need to be visually differentiated from each other on the display.

 

Perhaps at some point Tesla should implement a generic "obstacle" object in the visualization.

They did.
It's called a "Cone".

 

Well, unless Tesla decides to devote resources to code a visualization displaying Oscar the Grouch in a garage can, it doesn't bother me if it shows a potentially wayward generic trash can.

 

Elon musk has on many occasions mentioned that for FSD to be solved, computer vision must first be solved. A human uses vision for >99% of driving feedback and just as a human will understand and recognize whatever obstacle comes his/her way so must the FSD computer.
So training it to recognize objects as seemingly insignificant as a squirrel and trying to predict which direction it will run to avoid the oncoming car is just as important as training it to recognize a curb, a tree or utility pole and etc. The richer the database of recognized objects and their behaviors in many different conditions, the closer to FSD the system is.

 

Just wanted to share some more cone testing goodness. LOL

 

This lockdown is having some strange effects on people.

 

What's more amazing is that she's such a good sport about all this. My wife would have only humored me for about 15 seconds and then told me she had things to do.

 

What's more amazing is that she's such a good sport about all this.

Right!?? Oh that look on her face when she first walked out in the costume. I mean, that really is the "cone of shame". But she took it all in stride, and I say kudos to them as a couple for finding silly and entertaining ways to pass the time together right now!

 

Is this the aforementioned garbage can?