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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: 2) by etherscythe on Sunday May 19 2019, @05:05PM
<sarcasm>Horses work great getting you from one place to another - why have cars at all?</sarcasm>
I think the purpose of the driver assist is pretty great - reduce deaths in traffic due to human error, which is one of the biggest killers in first world countries today.
That said, I bet we have a lot to agree on: I also think using the name "autopilot" for a system which is essentially only a safety watchdog with secondary system control was a huge mistake on Tesla's part, especially in beta status. Don't call it autopilot until the car is literally driving completely by itself, and we've tested it well enough to feel at least somewhat safe with it legally. The current name gives people completely the wrong impression how how the feature is meant to be used. The documentation says one thing, but naming it Autopilot essentially says, "yeah, we only included that language because we were required to by law. We here in the cool kids club know that what it's really for is showing off to your girlfriend/drinking buddies how awesome you are by letting the car drive by itself and not pay attention, because you're so rad you can afford that car of the future."
One of my coworkers recently bought an older used Model S, and I'm a little disturbed by how casual he is in letting the car do what it wants to do on Autopilot v1 hardware. On the other hand, I'm also impressed by the collision which it has already avoided by slightly distracted driving (not watching several cars ahead) when he still had his hands on the wheel and eyes on the road and the car in front of him slammed on its brakes suddenly in response to slowing traffic ahead. This speaks to what the vision really was - help people look out for themselves, because digital billboards shift, solicitors/homeless stand with signs dangerously close to the road, rising/setting sun glares right in your eyeballs, or you just didn't sleep well last night, and any number of other temporary debilitations or distractions occur which really increase the risk of injury on the road.
Tesla was bound to make some mistakes, but I think some of these collisions were easily preventable had this branding decision not been made recklessly in the name of marketing, and overexaggerating on a feature just to stick another thumb in the eye of the established automakers. Musk is a central figure in that aspect of the business, and I will absolutely call him out on it.
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