Tesla driver reproduces fatal autopilot accident [video]

That kind of lane marking (or lack thereof) seems very unsafe. I realize that often this is due to construction / etc but the immediately-to-the-left lane's marker was Very Clear, and didn't have a visible split in it. I had to watch it a second time to make sure that I didn't miss the indications that the lane was splitting away (other than the highway signs). This kind of thing (lack of clear markings) can be really dangerous when driving at night in the raid (road is more reflective than normal), or in an unfamiliar area.

The autopilot could be better, but the road engineers should have made sure the lines were painted correctly.

I really dislike the marketing around "autopilot." The common defense of Tesla's autopilot is that there are disclaimers, and the driver should always be at 100% attention.

Well, look at this, copied from Tesla's website:

> Full Self-Driving Hardware on All Cars

> All Tesla vehicles produced in our factory, including Model 3, have the hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver. [1]

An average person is going to read this and think, "This care drives itself, and it's safer than me!" The rest of the page describes space-age features like switching lanes to get to an exit faster and self parking:

> All you will need to do is get in and tell your car where to go ... Your Tesla will figure out the optimal route, navigate urban streets (even without lane markings), manage complex intersections with traffic lights, stop signs and roundabouts, and handle densely packed freeways with cars moving at high speed ... and park itself.

They're selling a car that full on drives itself. This is not being sold as adaptive cruise control.

FWIW, they included a weasel phrase by saying "hardware" is there, as opposed to software, but come on! An average person is not going to understand that distinction. I think they need to dramatically scale back the hype around this feature until it actually delivers what it promises.

Edit: I'm also confused by why they need to hype up autopilot so much. They are already selling more cars than they can make, and a sexy electric car appeals to lots of people. I think it would be enough to stick with that.

[1] https://www.tesla.com/autopilot

Wow, I had to watch the road a second time to see markings of the split. In the beginning of the movie, I was expecting that there would be two lanes on the left and two lanes on the right.

I don't think the word reproduction is always used as strictly as your definition. In computer software/hardware the word is used even if the geographical location and hardware is different. I don't see using it to reproduce car issues would be any different.

When most of your users have a problem it’s not PEBKAC, it’s bad UX.

Just because a door says push, doesn’t mean it looks pushable. If it doesn’t look pushable, users will pull.

If all the PR and the CEO keep saying “autopilot”, users will use it as auto pilot. If it isn’t autopilot, it should have a different name.