A Tragic Loss

Where I'm from if you make a left turn and get side-swiped then it's your fault, period. You made an unsafe turn, plain and simple[1].

If what you describe is true, then human error is the main cause of the accident (although the AI failed to prevent it and absolutely should share the blame). I just think "AI kills driver" is a bit sensationalist don't you?

[1]Of course assuming that all other vehicles present were obeying the law (e.g. not speeding) and there were no other extenuating circumstances.

Your ignorant, fact-free fear-mongering is antithetical to saving lives.

1. An immense number of lives are being "carelessly sacrificed" right now, and will continue to be sacrificed every day until something comes along to fix the fundamental problem: People are terrible drivers. 2. Tesla's system did not override control of the vehicle. It was not presented as being safe or ready to operate without oversight. The law does not allow for it to be treated as such. The driver failed to hit the brakes despite being told by the car -- and by legal obligation -- that it was his responsibility to hit the brakes. 3. Tesla's system has proven to be safer than the average, unassisted driver, to date.

If the proportion of accidents involving Tesla's autopilot remained constant when scaling up to more drivers and more miles, then it would be a net win in terms of lives saved to deploy it widely right now.

Obviously though, nobody -- including Tesla -- expects that to be the case, or they'd have been touting this as something every driver should have RIGHT NOW.

Tesla is doing their public beta precisely because it's impossible to design a safety-critical system with perfect foresight. More information is needed to help them build a robust system and the public beta has proven to be an uncommonly safe and effective way to get that information.

If you think my rhetoric is inflammatory it's because you're blind to the logical consequences -- the human cost -- of what you advocate for.

Yes, this is an unfortunate fact of life that human beings are no angels.

However, most modern societies agree that reckless drivers are to be held accountable for their less than perfect behavior. If a police officer (or more recently, surveillance camera) catches you while DUI, or texting, or some other of the most blatant irresponsible behaviors, they will give you a big ticket. And if the consequences of your own idiocity happen to materialize you will suffer much sterner punishment (up to criminal charges for manslaughter, if it came down to that).

That's assuming the infractor does survive. It is a known fact that a non trivial amount of people responsible for accidents end up loosing their lives (or those of loved ones) in the very tragedies they caused themselves. Death is the ultimate judge, and a merciless one at that.

> You have to compare autopilot to realistic humans, not your platonic ideal of what a driver should be.

Why?

Neither the engineers who created those subpar systems - nor the executives who pushed for an unfeasible schedule, nor the shareholders that benefited from the whole deal, - will ever face the same consequences as described above. Corporations raison-d'etre is precisely to shield people engaging in economic activities from the unintended consequences of their actions; that's why they must be held to a higher standard than the everyman down the road.

Would you imagine Tesla's Board of Directors having approved the green light for this impressive-yet-still-limited technology, if the company was required to pay for every traffic ticket that every Model S accrued while being in autopilot mode, nationwide? What about being accountable for every accident, no disclaimer licensing or such nonsense?

> I'm sick and tired of people making statements about road transit predicated on the idea that real humans pay attention to the road with 100% fidelity at all times.

People will make statements about road transit, because it is literally a life-or-death situation. Maybe you do prefer the cattle to shut up and die quietly, so your utopic techno-fantasies are never challenged?

there is no such feature, there is a MobilEye _lane following_ system Tesla repackaged under Autopilot(TM) brand.

Say it out loud - lane following. Mercedes sold this same tech almost 10 years ago, difference is Tesla felt pressure and started believing their own marketing lies about autonomous driving.