Germany's Federal Motor Authority recently sent letters to Tesla drivers reminding them that the "Autopilot" function is for driver assistance, not replacement. Now, Tesla is being warned against advertising the feature:
German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt has asked Tesla to stop advertising its electric vehicles as having an Autopilot function as this might suggest drivers' attention is not needed, his ministry said on Sunday.
A spokeswoman for the ministry, confirming a report in the daily Bild am Sonntag (BamS), said the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) had written to Tesla to make the request. "It can be confirmed that a letter to Tesla exists with the request to no longer use the misleading term Autopilot for the driver assistance system of the car," she said in a written response to a Reuters' query.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 17 2016, @09:08PM
But they do allow pilots to take their hands away from the controls and concentrate on other tasks for short periods of time. Tesla's 'autopilot' does not.
What are you talking about?
Have you not seen all the videos of people doing exactly that?
Here's one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqnJRo4FQNo [youtube.com]
There are tons more.
Tesla's autopilot does substantially more than an aircraft autopilot. And that's the root of problem.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday October 18 2016, @07:06AM
Exactly, we know it happens - idiots even show themselves on Youtube doing it - but they should concentrate on driving the car.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday October 20 2016, @08:14PM
Thank you for demonstrating *the exact problem TFA is discussing*.
Because according to Tesla's own website, that ISN'T actually true. Yes, people do it, but the technology *is not designed to be capable of doing that*. What you're saying is equivalent to saying that a Galaxy Note 7 has a built-in cigarette lighter. Sure, you COULD use it for that under certain circumstances, but that's still not a true statement.
- https://www.tesla.com/presskit/autopilot#autopilot [tesla.com] (emphasis added)