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Federal investigators announced Tuesday that the design of Tesla's semiautonomous driving system allowed the driver of a Tesla Model S in a fatal 2016 crash with a semi-truck to rely too heavily on the car's automation.
"Tesla allowed the driver to use the system outside of the environment for which it was designed," said National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt. "The system gave far too much leeway to the driver to divert his attention."
The board's report declares the primary probable cause of the collision as the truck driver's failure to yield, as well as the Tesla driver's overreliance on his car's automation — or Autopilot, as Tesla calls the system. Tesla's system design was declared a contributing factor.
[...] A Tesla spokesperson provided a statement to ABC News that read, "We appreciate the NTSB's analysis of last year's tragic accident, and we will evaluate their recommendations as we continue to evolve our technology. We will also continue to be extremely clear with current and potential customers that Autopilot is not a fully self-driving technology and drivers need to remain attentive at all times."
According to The Associated Press, members of Brown's family said on Monday that they do not blame the car or the Autopilot system for his death.
A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report on the crash can be found here. The NTSB has yet not published its full report; a synopsis of it can be found here.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Virindi on Wednesday September 13 2017, @09:05PM (13 children)
As has been said before, they are sending mixed messages. Out of one side of their mouth, they load up the user with disclaimers and their PR team carefully crafts statements about how it is very important to always pay attention. But then out of the other side, they name the feature "Autopilot"* and then the marketing team produces a bunch of hype about how it is so advanced and it is going to be fully autonomous really soon now.
It might be different if the company was speaking with one voice. But this way, they are just being slimy.
*As has been said before by others, yes I know that airline pilots have to pay attention when autopilot is enabled. But this is about public perception of the term, not reality.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday September 13 2017, @09:34PM (1 child)
You overstate the case.
You seem to gloss over the fact that the cars enforce keeping your hands on the wheel most of the time, and only allow short periods of hands off driving. (The length of time you can be hands off is adjusted according to road conditions. You could probably cross Nevada on US Route 50 and never touch the wheel)
So its not at all like people can watch the advertising and then drive to work with their full of coffee and cell phone for the entire trip.
Since the May crash, Tesla has shortened the period you can be hands free, and will slow the vehicle to a crawl, and deny use of autopilot if the driver does not keep at least one hand on the wheel as the system demands.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Wednesday September 13 2017, @09:45PM
I hadn't heard about that, that is positive.
The marketing hype still seems to be full steam though.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday September 13 2017, @09:40PM (10 children)
If you can afford a Tesla, your phone has access to a plethora of dictionaries. There's no need to start redefining words.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Virindi on Wednesday September 13 2017, @09:48PM (7 children)
What? How many people with a Tesla do you think actually go to a dictionary to verify the definition of "autopilot"? That's completely unrealistic. I am talking here about the impression the name gives to Joe Public, not the dictionary definition.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday September 13 2017, @09:55PM
This is why we can't have nice words.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by khallow on Wednesday September 13 2017, @11:43PM (5 children)
Think of it as evolution in action. If a person gets killed or kills someone because they didn't bother to learn to drive a car for which they spent at least $68k, then fuck them. I get that everyone is not smart all the time, but we have to draw the line at high levels of negligence.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Virindi on Wednesday September 13 2017, @11:47PM (2 children)
Unfortunately, I drive the same roads as these people. So my life is also at risk by their behavior.
If they were doing it on their own farm road where there weren't any other drivers, I'd say have at it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @12:09AM (1 child)
He understands. He wrote or kills someone. If that someone is you, it's still evolution in action!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @02:49AM
Teela Brown ?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @01:31AM (1 child)
If they kill someone else (without killing themselves) due to their incompetence, and then you fuck them, that person might successfully produce offspring.
It would be better not to fuck such a person.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @04:44PM
Are you from another planet? In our culture, the fantasized fucking of persons convicted of negligent homicide (among many other offenses), is universally male-on-male. I really don't think GP needs to worry about reproduction, although it might be good if they could stop fantasizing about prison rape.
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Thursday September 14 2017, @11:09AM (1 child)
I wasn't aware that pilots were expected to sit with their hands on the stick and their eyes on the sky ahead while the plane was on autopilot, so they could slam on the brakes if a 747 suddenly pulled out from behind a cloud...
But then, driving is not flying. Insofar as it pertains to avoiding crashing into other planes or pedestrians, flying is easier than driving (other aspects may be a bit harder). Airline pilots report a "near miss" if another plane passes within a quarter of a mile of them. Airline pilots flying through crowded airspace have support from air traffic control. Airline pilots are paid to fly planes - they're not rushing to get to work so they can start getting paid. Airline pilots on large planes typically have a co-pilot to watch their back.
An airline-style autopilot (which basically kept you on a particular bearing) would be as much use as an inflatable dartboard in a car - so there's not much point arguing about what "autopilot" might mean in the context of a car.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @04:48PM
Sure, a literal airplane autopilot wouldn't do much good in a car, but there is a pretty clear analogy between "maintain constant heading" in the air and "stay in lane" on the road.