It has been an interesting month since my last post.
Tesla decided to give each Tesla owner a 30 day trial of the latest “Full Self Drive” features. When I bought the car not quite four years ago, I got the “Advanced Autopilot” feature set that was designed to work primarily on limited access highways. I have likened it to being like a 15 year old with a brand new learners permit. It did fine right up until it tried to kill you. “Rough” would be an understatement. Fortunately, the car has been a joy to drive by hand.
“Full Self Drive” adds to the Advanced Autopilot base the ability to deal with traffic lights and stop signs. I liken the latest FSD version to a 16 year old who has a full drivers license and a fair amount of time behind the wheel. It doesn’t drive as well as I do, but it is quite a bit better than any number of drivers I see on a daily basis. That includes the driver of the lawn service truck that made a right turn into the WaWa parking lot at Ridge and Little earlier this week from the far left lane. Needless to say, the truck was clearly out of blinker fluid too…
Even in “chill” mode, the car accelerates faster than I would and waits far later than I would before starting to slow down for a traffic light. As the car accelerates away from a light, you can feel the pauses as the car in front of you shifts gears. If Tesla rolls out a “super chill” mode and figures out how to make the system hands free, then they will have something worth buying or subscribing to. For now, I can safely assure you that I will have to disengage the system at least once on any given trip when I let the car drive.
I hope they get FSD perfected before it is time for me to turn in my car keys in 15 or 20 years. This technology has the promise of keeping our senior citizens safely mobile and involved in our community. Far too many of our older residents become prisoners of their own homes when they lose the ability to drive.
When we purchased our new home, the previous owner was surprised at the report from the four point inspection. He assured us that the house had been built to code, including proper attachments as part of the most recent re-roofing. We recently got an experienced inspector to do a new four point inspection. We now have pictures clearly showing roofing attachments that the first inspector couldn’t see. The second inspector told me that our mistake the first time around was hiring Stevie Wonder to do a visual inspection… Based on the new inspection, our insurance premium dropped by over $800. The moral of the story is to seek a second opinion if the first inspection seems off.
Working from my home office at the new place is working out quite well. I’ve been able to get several projects completed and some new ones underway. Most recently, we’ve added Security Awareness Training to our suite of offerings and we’ve upgraded the anti-malware packages we offer to our clients. While the Security Awareness Training is designed for companies, we are offering it to individuals as well. You can get more information by visiting our website.
One of the boxes I have already moved over to the new house had a lot of scout pictures from the 70’s through the 90’s. One of the pictures was from the mid-90’s, when my son’s troop was doing some sort of service project downtown. The picture shows the New Port Richey City Hall. Can you see anything different from the way it looks today?
Peter Altman and the rest of the city council back then made a decision to make downtown New Port Richey a LOT nicer and you can see the result by looking at this picture and comparing it with what you see when you drive past City Hall today.
I’m looking forward to taking my beautiful bride out to dinner to celebrate our 49th anniversary. I haven’t decided which restaurant we will go to, but I will ask Carolyn where she wants to go. After 49 years, I have learned a few things.
The title of this note “The Home Stretch” is a reference to how close we are to finally moving into our new home. We are checking the last of the pre-move items off our list and we should be ready to get movers lined up shortly.
Rob
Not a big fan yet of the full self-drive concept. It’s not hard to think of numerous scenarios where it could really be a deadly disaster with today’s technology. Maybe in another decade or so …
That being said, some of the new safety precautions built in to cars that take over control from the driver are definitely a good thing. I bike around town A LOT. And just the other day I was riding down the sidewalk and going in front of a driver who was waiting to pull out into traffic. He saw a tiny opening and decided to go for it right when I was in front of his SUV. Lucky for me his car sensed my presence and slammed on the brakes for him. Whew!
I agree with you regarding the current state of the art, hence my comparing the car’s capabilities to that of a teenage driver. I don’t see fully autonomous cars for another 10-15 years either, but the technology is advancing rapidly, so it might come sooner.
There two intersections in my neighborhood that give the self driving software fits:
River Road and Green Key is an intersection on a blind curve. The car has balked when confronted with cars illegally parked on the grass on the outside of the intersection, when a golf cart appeared out of nowhere coming from the other direction, and when a big pickup truck pulled out onto River just as we arrived at the intersection. In all three cases, the car stood on the brakes until it could figure out whether or not it was safe to proceed.
River / Jasmin and Palmetto. Heading north on River, there is an island and you can angle off before the stop sign if you are turning right on Palmetto. The car sometimes wants to take the right cut and sometimes wants to go all the way to the stop sign. It often waits until it is right at the cut before deciding.
On a brighter note, the car recognizes pedestrians on the narrow sidewalks along River and tries to give them as much room as possible.
:You still have to keep your hands on the wheel and stay prepared to take over immediately if necessary.