Tesla confirms “Autopilot” crash in Montana

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 7:22 AM UTC

studentrob wrote: post #160

Animats wrote: post #109

With three accidents on "autopilot" in a short period, the defects in Tesla's design are becoming clear. 1. Tesla's "hands on wheel" enforcement is much weaker than their competitors. BMW, Volvo, and Mercedes have similar systems, but after a few seconds of hands-off-wheel, the vehicle will start to slow. Tesla allows minutes of hands-off time; one customer reports driving 50 miles without touching the wheel. Tesla i…

> In comparison, when a Google self-driving car bumped a bus at 2mph, Google admitted fault, took the blame, and Urmson gave a talk at SXSW showing the data from the sensors and discussing how the self-driving car misjudged the likely behavior of the bus. This is what we should be trumpeting. Responsibility, honesty, and transparency. Google's self driving car project reports [1] should be the standard. They're publi…

Post by studentrob » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 7:23 AM UTC

Retra wrote: post #162

studentrob wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Drivers who have a license that indicates that they will take responsibility The fact that customers are licensed does not mean the seller is free from any and all regulation. Gun owners are licensed, and guns are required to have safety switches. Cars have a long history of being regulated [1] Basically, anything that can contribute to deaths is going to monitored closely by consumer protection bureaus, and will p…

I didn't mean to imply otherwise. Tesla probably could do a much better job informing it's customers what they are getting into, because they certainly aren't in a position to figure it out themselves. And they definitely can make their software better. What I'm saying is, if your car injures someone while you sit in the driver seat, and you could have easily taken an easily foreseeable action to prevent it, then you…

Post by _Codemonkeyism » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 7:26 AM UTC

michaelmcmillan wrote: post #126

meddlepal wrote: post #111

Tesla needs (or is going to be forced) to issue a recall soon. Putting "beta" technology in a car isn't OK when it puts drivers and others on the road in danger. This is especially problematic because people have a preconceived notion of what "auto pilot" means and just because Tesla says it's not ready for prime time so therefore you should "keep your hands on the wheel" doesn't make it OK to put into production.

I thought the entire autopilot could be replaced with an over-the-air software update?

Post by kmonsen » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 7:27 AM UTC

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #204

Animats wrote: post #109

With three accidents on "autopilot" in a short period, the defects in Tesla's design are becoming clear. 1. Tesla's "hands on wheel" enforcement is much weaker than their competitors. BMW, Volvo, and Mercedes have similar systems, but after a few seconds of hands-off-wheel, the vehicle will start to slow. Tesla allows minutes of hands-off time; one customer reports driving 50 miles without touching the wheel. Tesla i…

"Tesla's sensor suite is inadequate." To me this seems to limit what is possible by software updates. Does that mean that existing Tesla owners will never get 'real' autopilot capabilities by software upgrades, although I assume most expect to get them?

Post by iabacu » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 7:30 AM UTC

slavik81 wrote: post #182

iabacu wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's 90 million miles among all cars. I'd wager that if you compare it with cars at Tesla price point -- mostly luxury cars -- Tesla would look pretty bad.

Why do you think the accident rate is lower among luxury cars as compared to more common vehicles? I would suspect the opposite. My hypothesis is that the people who seek out and buy cars that go 0 to 60 in 3.2 seconds probably drive faster and more aggressively than average. They therefore are more likely to have an accident.