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Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

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Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#21

Post by s_y_n_t_a_x »

salimmadjd wrote: post #12

This is sad and tragic. I remember going with a friend on a Tesla test drive. He was eager to try the Autopilot system. And within a few minutes we got freaked out with what seem to us as unpredictable action and we turned it off. I think the engineer should have never relied on it. Especially if he had concerns with the system. At the same time, "Autopilot" is misleading and Tesla does own responsibility here. Even…

On the flip-side I feel like Tesla has done a good job distinguishing Autopilot from their Full Self Driving package.

Autopilot is a mashup of safety features (lane-assist, cruise-control, etc).

We can debate all day how you feel about the name, but that seems petty and you're even wrong about that. The name fits perfectly, look up the definition to autopilot.

Edit: no hero cape here, just a different opinion. I know, crazy! It's almost if you guys root for the automobile/oil industry sometimes you hate Elon so much.

The media is a powerful tool, scary to see it work on HN readers. They got you guys to hate the one guy that actually is fixing the problems. It's not a crazy conspiracy theory if you believe the power the automobile and oil industry have.

Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#23

Post by chairmanwow1 »

majestik wrote: post #14
jelliclesfarm wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have used Tesla’s autopilot...it has its moments...I don’t think it can make decisions within 10 second windows before obstacles. It’s also very dodgy at certain merges. I take it off autopilot. On a slightly diff note: I wanted a demo of auto parallel parking and also reverse parallel parking and summon feature after the last update. I went to the Tesla showroom. They were super nice but refused to demonstrate due…

I rented a Tesla Model S from Enterprise recently and learned they don’t enable Autopilot due to liability issues.

This is good to know. I was planning to rent one to show my family when they visit.

Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#24

Post by smileysteve »

harrisonjackson wrote: post #6

Tesla says autopilot works but that driver should be ready to intervene. This is terrifying - like having a kid riding shotgun that might just reach out and turn the wheel while you are on the highway. Anyone who has driven with autopilot, how quickly might it react to a perceived obstacle? Would it take a hard turn into a median faster than a person could reasonably react if it thought there was something in the roa…

From my experience, not a hard turn. The worst was it was raining and inconstant lane markings around a turn. I wondered if it was going to make the turn or if it was going to make it too late towards the sidewall.

It also takes very little interaction for it to pop out of self driving

Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#25

Post by newnewpdro »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #17
threeseed wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all conjecture. You don't know that the driver would still be alive if the lanes were painted correctly etc. Autopilot could still misidentify the barrier as we've seen it do in other situations.

Five drivers hit the same barrier the year before the Tesla accident and a second human piloted vehicle fataly struck the same barrier just two months after the Tesa crash. It is absolutely a road design and maintenance issue.

How many drivers didn't hit the same barrier that year?

It just seems like an edge case that's catching inattentive drivers off guard, which IMHO is a category including Tesla's on autopilot. And it seems Tesla agrees here; they require drivers pay attention when using Autopilot. If your vehicle runs into a barrier on Autopilot, you weren't paying attention.

Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#27

Post by koboll »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #8

IMHO the fault ultimately lies with Caltrans. Poorly drawn lane markers resulted in a human driver hitting the barrier just days before destroying the arresting system. If the lanes had been painted correctly and the arresting system replaced the Tesla driver would not have died.

Sounds like the main problems, besides whatever was wrong with the self-driving software, were that area of the freeway being unacceptably unsafe...

> which the NTSB determined had been damaged and repaired more frequently than any other left-exit in Caltrans' District 4, which includes all of the Bay Area.

...and CHP not doing their job:

> The California Highway Patrol responded to the March 12 crash but did not notify Caltrans of the damage as required, the NTSB said.

Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#29

Post by throwaway724 »

I'm increasingly of the opinion that technology like this will never see broad regulatory approval. I just can't see an argument where any agency will be comfortable with acceptable losses, and I don't see any endgame in which this technology does not result in an infinitesimal, but non-zero amount of fatal errors.

Re: Apple engineer killed in Tesla crash had previously complained about autopilot

#30

Post by m00x »

salimmadjd wrote: post #12

This is sad and tragic. I remember going with a friend on a Tesla test drive. He was eager to try the Autopilot system. And within a few minutes we got freaked out with what seem to us as unpredictable action and we turned it off. I think the engineer should have never relied on it. Especially if he had concerns with the system. At the same time, "Autopilot" is misleading and Tesla does own responsibility here. Even…

Autopilot never meant full automatic control. In a plane context, which was the most common until now, it's only used to keep a trajectory steady, and anything unusual has to be taken care of by a human pilot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot

> Autopilots do not replace human operators, but instead they assist them in controlling the vehicle.

Names don't really mean anything, it could have been named anything. If people think it's 99% reliable and it's convenient, they will use it.

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