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Sleeping Tesla driver ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

theregister.co.uk

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Re: Sleeping Tesla driver ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

#11

Post by w8vY7ER »

atonse wrote: post #8

My Tesla asks me every single minute to shake the steering wheel while on Autopilot. Are you telling me the guy fell asleep between one of those? Maybe, anything is possible. Also we go through this every single time. Journalists often insist that Autopilot is a misleading name, when it is a PERFECT name for the feature. It is exactly like Autopilot on an aircraft. Autopilot on an aircraft doesn't absolve the pilots…

I could not agree more with this comment. As a fellow owner it's astonishing how much is incorrectly attributed to the brand instead of the operators of the vehicles in this kind of writing.

Re: Sleeping Tesla driver ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

#12

Post by jmpman »

Traster wrote: post #5

To a certain extent "Car hits traffic cones" isn't really a news story. I know it's part of a broader conversation about Tesla's bad user experience, but still, traffic cones.

Makes you wonder if Tesla’s future Full Self Driving feature will handle this scenario differently.

Re: Sleeping Tesla driver ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

#13

Post by reitzensteinm »

atonse wrote: post #9
m-p-3 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should rebrand the feature as Copilot, not Autopilot.

See my comment above. Autopilot is a perfect name. Co-Pilots on an aircraft are a full-redundancy to the pilot. They are also there to do every single function in case a pilot is not able to. Autopilot is an assistive feature that helps with monotony and boredom, just like this.

So the name will convey the right message to anyone with flight time? And this makes it perfect?

Re: Sleeping Tesla driver ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

#14

Post by thebruce87m »

atonse wrote: post #10
getpolarized wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I didn't buy a Tesla... It's half pregnant basically. My 2019 Mazda 6 has adaptive cruise control and I think this gives you 80% of the features set for 1/3rd of the price. FSD would allow you to only supervise which is definitely a lot LESS work.

I've gone on a 4 hour road trip (all on a major US highway) where I actually drove for maybe 30 mins total. The car drove flawlessly on the highway. For these situations, it is a perfect use case to help with the monotony of highway driving. Yes I had to stay alert, but I could also relax a bit and look around every now and then, chuckle at a billboard, or pass some food back to my kid, which I can't if I'm driving.

The software engineer that died when his Tesla hit a barrier only had a 4 second window to react [1]. Hope you’re not looking away for too long.

[1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/ntsbs-tesla-fatal-crash-report...

Re: Sleeping Tesla driver ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

#15

Post by positr0n »

atonse wrote: post #8

My Tesla asks me every single minute to shake the steering wheel while on Autopilot. Are you telling me the guy fell asleep between one of those? Maybe, anything is possible. Also we go through this every single time. Journalists often insist that Autopilot is a misleading name, when it is a PERFECT name for the feature. It is exactly like Autopilot on an aircraft. Autopilot on an aircraft doesn't absolve the pilots…

Ask the average person not interested in aviation what the autopilot does in an airplane. They will tell you "automatic pilot. It flies the plane."

Autopilot is technically correct, which is useless unless you are only selling it to aviation enthusiasts.

Re: Sleeping Tesla driver ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

#16

Post by atonse »

positr0n wrote: post #15
atonse wrote: post #8

My Tesla asks me every single minute to shake the steering wheel while on Autopilot. Are you telling me the guy fell asleep between one of those? Maybe, anything is possible. Also we go through this every single time. Journalists often insist that Autopilot is a misleading name, when it is a PERFECT name for the feature. It is exactly like Autopilot on an aircraft. Autopilot on an aircraft doesn't absolve the pilots…

Ask the average person not interested in aviation what the autopilot does in an airplane. They will tell you "automatic pilot. It flies the plane." Autopilot is technically correct, which is useless unless you are only selling it to aviation enthusiasts.

Which is why I comment that it is the job of the media to properly message this to the public, instead of hopping on the bandwagon of "The name is bad!!!"

Isn't that a big part of why the media even exists? To inform the populace?

Re: Sleeping Tesla driver ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

#17

Post by atonse »

reitzensteinm wrote: post #13
atonse wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See my comment above. Autopilot is a perfect name. Co-Pilots on an aircraft are a full-redundancy to the pilot. They are also there to do every single function in case a pilot is not able to. Autopilot is an assistive feature that helps with monotony and boredom, just like this.

So the name will convey the right message to anyone with flight time? And this makes it perfect?

Look at what I say – It is the job of the media to properly explain this to the public, instead of stoking fears that the name is inappropriate and misleading. That's the media's mission.

Re: Sleeping Tesla driver ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

#18

Post by atonse »

thebruce87m wrote: post #14
atonse wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've gone on a 4 hour road trip (all on a major US highway) where I actually drove for maybe 30 mins total. The car drove flawlessly on the highway. For these situations, it is a perfect use case to help with the monotony of highway driving. Yes I had to stay alert, but I could also relax a bit and look around every now and then, chuckle at a billboard, or pass some food back to my kid, which I can't if I'm driving.

The software engineer that died when his Tesla hit a barrier only had a 4 second window to react [1]. Hope you’re not looking away for too long. [1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/ntsbs-tesla-fatal-crash-report...

Yeah like I tell my relatives and friends, "I'm a software guy which is exactly why I don't fully trust this thing. I know my people and know exactly how the sausage is made."

I only use autopilot on a sunny day, with less traffic (if going full speed, or in a traffic jam where you're going 10 mph) and only if the lines are very obvious.

Anything away from that happy path, I'm manually driving.

Re: Sleeping Tesla driver ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

#19

Post by [deleted] »

atonse wrote: post #16
positr0n wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ask the average person not interested in aviation what the autopilot does in an airplane. They will tell you "automatic pilot. It flies the plane." Autopilot is technically correct, which is useless unless you are only selling it to aviation enthusiasts.

Which is why I comment that it is the job of the media to properly message this to the public, instead of hopping on the bandwagon of "The name is bad!!!" Isn't that a big part of why the media even exists? To inform the populace?

[deleted]

Re: Sleeping Tesla driver ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

#20

Post by fuzz4lyfe »

atonse wrote: post #17
reitzensteinm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the name will convey the right message to anyone with flight time? And this makes it perfect?

Look at what I say – It is the job of the media to properly explain this to the public, instead of stoking fears that the name is inappropriate and misleading. That's the media's mission.

Then the media should call it cruise control.
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