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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday January 25 2018, @02:16AM   Printer-friendly
from the stay-alert-stay-alive dept.

El Reg reports

[January 23] a Tesla Model S slammed into a stationary firetruck at around 65mph on Interstate 405 in Culver City, California. The car was driven under the fire engine, although the driver was able to walk away from the crash uninjured and refused an offer of medical treatment.

The motorist claimed the Model S was driving with Autopilot enabled when it crammed itself under the truck. Autopilot is Tesla's super-cruise-control system. It's not a fully autonomous driving system.

[...] The fire truck was parked in the carshare lane of the road with its lights flashing. None of the fire crew were hurt, although Powell noted that if his team had been in their usual position at the back of the truck then there "probably would not have been a very good outcome."

Tesla will no doubt be going over the car's computer logs to determine exactly what happened, something the California Highway Patrol will also be interested in. If this was a case of the driver sticking on Autopilot, and forgetting their responsibility to watch the road ahead it wouldn't be the first time.

In 2016, a driver was killed after both he and the Tesla systems missed a lorry pulling across the highway. A subsequent investigation by the US National Transportation Safety Board found the driver was speeding and had been warned by the car six times to keep his hands on the wheel.

Tesla has since beefed up the alerts the car will give a driver if it feels they aren't paying full attention to the road. The safety board did note in its report that the introduction of Tesla's Autosteer software had cut collisions by 40 per cent.

Previous: Tesla's Semiautonomous System Contributed to Fatal Crash


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  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday January 25 2018, @05:46PM

    by Freeman (732) on Thursday January 25 2018, @05:46PM (#627770) Journal

    I would say we're pretty good with nailing the average citizen who DUIs. Money and Power still go a long way towards making some things disappear.

    As far as radio, etc. goes in modern vehicles. A good one has channel up/down and volume up/down on your steering wheel. Perhaps both of my vehicles are a decade out-of-date? Tiny push buttons, fine print displays, and the like should be operated when the vehicle is parked. You shouldn't be trying to reach over and access the glove compartment and fiddling with that unless you're parked, either.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
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