No it is a continuum. The camera is part of the data to gather. Reacting to the camera is part of the processing of the data. In the end that’s ALL this is: gather data, use it, do it all fast enough to safely control a vehicle at highway speeds.
Tesla’s focus on level 2 is indicative of the fact that they’re willing to ship in iterations. They’re climbing the hill. And so is BMW, Google, Mercedes, Volvo and Ford. And whoever did these trucks. And that’s just the ones we know about.
In the end all purely technical problems are solvable. It’s not like they have to break relativity or thermodynamics. It is, at it’s core, a big data problem, and big data is a happening place right now.
“It is, at it’s core, a big data problem”
Its an entropy problem. You can’t collect ‘big data’, unless you know what constitutes data...and the real world offers an infinite set of variables...you can never know all of it.
Does it have to be perfect? No. But it has to be close to it...and it can’t be.
You seem to have moved the goal post around like its on a 3 dimensional chess board. So lets recap and define some terms.
“there will be a mass produced luxury driverless vehicle on the market within 5 years”
“THEY’RE ALREADY OUT THERE. Millions of miles driven on America’s roads by self driving cars already”
“TESLA IS ON THE MARKET”
“The only reason there’s a driver in them is the law. They mostly don’t do anything, they’re ballast.”
“Tesla, Mercedes, BMW have shipped”
“That [Tesla] IS a self driving car.”
First, the NHTSA classifications:
Level 0: The driver completely controls the vehicle at all times.
Level 1: Individual vehicle controls are automated, such as electronic stability control or automatic braking.
Level 2: At least two controls can be automated in unison, such as adaptive cruise control in combination with lane keeping.
Level 3: The driver can fully cede control of all safety-critical functions in certain conditions. The car senses when conditions require the driver to retake control and provides a “sufficiently comfortable transition time” for the driver to do so.
Level 4: The vehicle performs all safety-critical functions for the entire trip, with the driver not expected to control the vehicle at any time. As this vehicle would control all functions from start to stop, including all parking functions, it could include unoccupied cars.
Tesla, BMW, Mercedes...none of them have ‘shipped’ a car that does better than level 2. They are not ‘driverless’ or ‘self driving’ in any way, shape, or form.
You have predicted level 4 will be attained in 5 years. To me, its obvious that’s impossible. We shall see.