...for vision heavy rain isn't terribly different from a blizzard...
I would say that heavy rain is incredibly different from a blizzard. Snow has a much greater horizontal-to-vertical velocity, reflects more light, and flutters around. Rain mostly moves in straight lines, even in high wind. Not to mention traction is completely different on water vs. slush vs. snow vs. ice, as well as with good snow/rain tires vs. worn all-season tires.
I'm sure Tesla knows all this, but just in case you haven't driven in a blizzard before, you will need to drive very, very differently from driving in heavy rain.
I hope they know that when there's a south eastern style afternoon thunderstorm that dumps several inches of rain in 20 minutes that it is best to just pull over and wait.
Just had a flashback to a near death accident in Louisiana on the highway at about 70mph this way. Cloudy no rain, pavement dry, then almost instantly a torrential downpour dumped what looked like a standing half inch of water on the road. The tires lost traction and I slid off into the median. Thankfully I the median was wide and grass and I coasted to a stop (sideways) about a yard from a tree. If you've driven I-10 through Louisiana you know what I mean.
Not sure what an autonomous car could have done in such a situation but anticipate that maybe we should preemptively pull over for a bit before it starts raining.
Hopefully any autonomous system will be able to make the call of whether it is safe to drive itself - whether because of heavy rain, blizzard, tornado etc. Some situations are just not safe to drive a car in, regardless of who's driving.
I would say that heavy rain is incredibly different from a blizzard. Snow has a much greater horizontal-to-vertical velocity, reflects more light, and flutters around. Rain mostly moves in straight lines, even in high wind. Not to mention traction is completely different on water vs. slush vs. snow vs. ice, as well as with good snow/rain tires vs. worn all-season tires.
I'm sure Tesla knows all this, but just in case you haven't driven in a blizzard before, you will need to drive very, very differently from driving in heavy rain.