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from the keep-your-eyes-on-the-road-and-your-hands-on-the-wheel dept.
Tesla's advanced driver assist system, Autopilot, was active when a Model 3 driven by a 50-year-old Florida man crashed into the side of a tractor-trailer truck on March 1st, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) states in a report released on Thursday. Investigators reviewed video and preliminary data from the vehicle and found that neither the driver nor Autopilot "executed evasive maneuvers" before striking the truck.
[...] The driver, Jeremy Beren Banner, was killed in the crash. It is at least the fourth fatal crash of a Tesla vehicle involving Autopilot.
This crash is eerily similar to another one involving a Tesla in 2016 near Gainesville, Florida. In that incident, Joshua Brown was killed when his Model S sedan collided with a semitrailer truck on a Florida highway in May 2016, making him the first known fatality in a semi-autonomous car.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) determined that a "lack of safeguards" contributed to Brown's death. Meanwhile, today's report is just preliminary, and the NTSB declined to place blame on anyone.
Source: The Verge
Also at Ars Technica.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17 2019, @01:45PM (3 children)
From the Verge link,
It all falls apart when they say, "...by an attentive driver who is prepared to take control at all times," -- the problem is that this doesn't exist, anyone not actively driving is effectively not able to quickly assess the driving situation (get up to speed?) and make reasonable decisions.
Similar thing with the paid driver in the Uber accident in Tempe, AZ, the temptation is too strong to be distracted.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Friday May 17 2019, @01:56PM (2 children)
So, space aliens can use the Tesla autopilot safely? I do not know a single human being who could make a 2 hour road trip with the Autopilot engaged and maintain attention / preparation to take control at all times. Some backseat drivers might approach 75% readiness, but even their attention lapses when their hands aren't on the wheel.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by lentilla on Friday May 17 2019, @11:34PM (1 child)
Hmmm. They should have taken their mother-in-law on the trip. That's 110% attention to detail right there.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday May 18 2019, @12:19PM
What needs to be noted is that even with hands on the wheel, almost noone maintains 100% attention to the full situation, to the front, the sides, all potential collisions in the case that somebody does something unexpected.
Hell, around here (Florida) you're lucky if 5% of the drivers around you aren't staring down at their phone screens at any given moment. Try this: while you're sitting at a light, take a good look into the oncoming cars as they go by - try to count 20 in a row that appear, from the outside, to be paying full attention - not holding/looking into a phone, down at the radio, applying makeup, turned to look at a passenger while talking to them, etc. I don't think you'll get to 20, most days you won't even get to 10.
🌻🌻 [google.com]