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Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

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Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#41
post #24
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well yeah but he’s not the one suing. The family lost him and probably isn’t thinking rationally. Or, maybe they are thinking rationally. Lawyers probably took the suit on contingency right?

That's fair enough, but the problem I have is the way this event is being portrayed in news and social media. The implication everywhere is that autopilot just unexpectedly swerved into a wall and there was nothing the driver could have done. It actually was expected, and any reasonable driver could have easily prevented it, because it had almost happened so many times in the past.

[deleted]

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#42
post #12
post #7

That news about this case is being spread everywhere irks me a bit, because people aren't considering the actual circumstances of the accident. Excerpt from the article: "According to the family, Mr. Huang was well aware that Autopilot was not perfect and, specifically, he told them it was not reliable in that exact location, yet he nonetheless engaged Autopilot at that location. The crash happened on a clear day wit…

Sounds like his smartphone is about as liable as Tesla here. If he hadn't been distracted this shouldn't have happened. He knew his autopilot doesn't handle this section of the road.

I'm confused here.

Has Tesla publicly stated which sections of the road autopilot doesn't work on ?

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#43
post #23
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your argument sounds the same as: people who smoke know that cigarettes cause cancer, in fact it says that on the pack, still they decide to smoke. So, if they get cancer and die it's their fault not the cigarette manufacturer's.

Cigarette manufacturers got sued into oblivion because they suppressed science and insisted their product was beneficial. Now that they acknowledge the dangers, nobody’s suing.

Of course people are still suing. And in many countries governments are continuing to sue as well.

Just Google it. Plenty of examples.

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#44
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like his smartphone is about as liable as Tesla here. If he hadn't been distracted this shouldn't have happened. He knew his autopilot doesn't handle this section of the road.

I'm confused here. Has Tesla publicly stated which sections of the road autopilot doesn't work on ?

The docs say to keep your hands on the wheel and stay alert at all times.

Never mind Tesla CEO on national television taking hands off the wheel and not watching the road.

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#45
post #16
post #7

That news about this case is being spread everywhere irks me a bit, because people aren't considering the actual circumstances of the accident. Excerpt from the article: "According to the family, Mr. Huang was well aware that Autopilot was not perfect and, specifically, he told them it was not reliable in that exact location, yet he nonetheless engaged Autopilot at that location. The crash happened on a clear day wit…

Why does that matter? The next person who comes by with autopilot on who doesn't know that might also die.

That's a great point.

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#46

So, in a traditional embedded system, discovery can reveal the source code to help determine what went wrong (e.g. divide by zero error in x-ray machine). What are the lawyers going to get when they start looking into the Tesla's autopilot software?

Likely they will get a gigantic sea of trained deep learning weights that noone understands.

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused here. Has Tesla publicly stated which sections of the road autopilot doesn't work on ?

The docs say to keep your hands on the wheel and stay alert at all times. Never mind Tesla CEO on national television taking hands off the wheel and not watching the road.

I'm fully aware of their recommendation.

But if Tesla is aware that certain parts of the road are more likely to cause incidents and they haven't communicated that. Well sounds to me like that would be criminally negligent.

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#48
post #24
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well yeah but he’s not the one suing. The family lost him and probably isn’t thinking rationally. Or, maybe they are thinking rationally. Lawyers probably took the suit on contingency right?

That's fair enough, but the problem I have is the way this event is being portrayed in news and social media. The implication everywhere is that autopilot just unexpectedly swerved into a wall and there was nothing the driver could have done. It actually was expected, and any reasonable driver could have easily prevented it, because it had almost happened so many times in the past.

[deleted]

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#49
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the issue with wireless updates on any vehicle. What if tomorrow Autopilot is updated and it begins occurring 2 miles down the road?

On the flip side, Tesla fixed this specific issue (and apparently unfixed it again) with over the air updates. If this was another manufacturer the cars would need to be recalled and it would likely be years before a fix was rolled out to all vehicles and therefore lives would continue to be in danger. So it isn't like over the air updates are inherently bad. The reality of the situation is that there almost certainl…

[deleted]

Re: Tesla sued in wrongful death lawsuit that alleges Autopilot caused crash

#50
post #25

While I'm not quite sure about Tesla's responsibility, I do think CA DOT has its part in this tragic accident. Had the attenuator been replaced right after the previous accident, it could have saved the driver's life. Usually I don't complain much about the gov, but just look at the construction mess they've created on 101, it's been like that for more than 4 years!

So don't blame the company whose claiming that their car can "autopilot" under all conditions.

Instead blame the road. Interesting take.

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