Tesla and Autopilot crashes...

[Portreve]

The latest article I've seen is that there's a guy who's claiming he crashed into a bunch of lane market posts at a highway turnoff because he couldn't disengage his car's Autopilot function in and it didn't behave correctly.

Tesla, for their part, said any manual turning of the steering wheel, applying of the brake, etc., would automatically have overridden the Autopilot and disengaged it.

My questions to the community are these:

1. Who here thinks this may have been a deliberate stunt to gain notoriety or bloody Tesla's nose?
2. Who here seriously believes it's a good idea to let and/or encourage the general public to abdicate driving responsibilities of their own cars?
3. For those of you old enough to remember it, does anyone think maybe this could just be a parallel to the "Velcro laced shoes" fad of the 1980s?

[trytip]

having all the control on a flat screen (not even curved mind you) is a lame excuse for an electric car. just looking at it from this angle gives you a glare not to mention all the click click point back ooops where's the menu i pressed the wrong setting for autopilot.
a touch control should be large and one touch. i don't want to scroll through menu entries like my android while driving. isn't this basically texting while driving



maybe the batteries are decent, that doesn't mean create a car around them just to say "look Martha, we built a car that drives on dreams

[all41]

Seems similar to a plea of 'speeding--due to faulty brakes'

[Portreve]

having all the control on a flat screen (not even curved mind you) is a lame excuse for an electric car. just looking at it from this angle gives you a glare not to mention all the click click point back ooops where's the menu i pressed the wrong setting for autopilot.
a touch control should be large and one touch. i don't want to scroll through menu entries like my android while driving. isn't this basically texting while driving



maybe the batteries are decent, that doesn't mean create a car around them just to say "look Martha, we built a car that drives on dreams

So when that panel eventually goes out, how do you do anything in the car? How would you know how fast you're going?

[Portreve]

Talk about coincidental timing...

This just came across my news feed, and I thought perhaps this may interest you folks...

Ars Technica: In 2017, the feds said Tesla Autopilot cut crashes 40%—that was bogus

[ellen_harvey]

tesla had to upgrade their autopilot program, few of teslas are crashed due to some odd reasons, and there is no concrete answer of tesla upon it.

[Pepi]

My wife and I just did a 12 day trip in Arizona and Utah. We rented a Toyota SUV. She found out real fast that the thing would steer on it's own while on cruise control. Didn't take me long to find the manual and turn that snit off

[Portreve]

What worried me when I started this thread still worries me today: I don't trust Tesla's autopilot, or any other autopilot, to do as reliably good of a job as a human being; and that I do not care for the direction here which may witness the mass abdication of personal responsibility behind the wheel.

If other people get killed because of Tesla (or any other company) insisting on putting autopilot functionality in cars, I think the general public should directly make its resultant displeasure known to Tesla, and/or the Tesla car driver him/herself.

[AZgl1800]

Electric cars are not the way to go

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business ... story.html

[BG405]

So when that panel eventually goes out, how do you do anything in the car?

Exactly. And, personally, I think it's a REALLY STUPID IDEA to have touch-screen interfaces in vehicles, for the use of the driver.

Especially those mounted in a position away from the normal field of view of the driver, e.g. in the central console.

You don't have to LOOK at tactile controls e.g. gearstick, indicator stalks, lights, fan, radio etc. but you DO have to look at a touch screen to interact with it, therefore not looking at the road. And to have ALL the controls this way?

N.B. I've never driven an automatic, by the way. Wouldn't know what to do with my left foot or be able to change gear when I want. As a driver, I want to be in FULL control of the vehicle at all times. I really don't like the idea of losing ALL control of the vehicle I'm supposed to be driving. Puddle ahead? (I aquaplaned on the M1 once, no problem. How would an AI cope with this?) Black ice? Idiot(s) a few vehicles ahead, or behind, out of sensor range? Reacting to an emergency service vehicle needing to pass? ... sure I could think of more.

People who don't want to drive, or are not competent at doing so, shouldn't. Plus, who's to blame in the event of a RTC?

[Portreve]

N.B. I've never driven an automatic, by the way. Wouldn't know what to do with my left foot or be able to change gear when I want.

I've never driven a manual transmission car. Conceptually, I understand what goes on, but operationally... wouldn't have a clue. I want to move to Germany in the next year or two, and I'm hoping I can track down an automatic because I don't really think I'm at a point where I can learn how to function in another country while at the same time trying to learn how to up- and downshift my car.

I love driving, and I love to travel, but for me a car is strictly a practical means of getting from A to B, and nothing more.

[As an aside, I have no burning desire to drive on Germany's Autobahn. If I could live there and never get on it, I'd be quite happy. I'm not a fast driver, and never have been. I trust my reflexes, but only up to a point.]

Puddle ahead? (I aquaplaned on the M1 once, no problem. How would an AI cope with this?) Black ice? Idiot(s) a few vehicles ahead, or behind, out of sensor range? Reacting to an emergency service vehicle needing to pass? ... sure I could think of more.

Where I live, I've seen plenty of other drivers, in compromised, rainy conditions tear-assing down the road as if it were a dry and sunny day. Here in Florida, I've seen it happen that rain comes through and saturates an area between where you're at and where you're going, but not at either of those locations, and is over and done by the time you're on the road, and the next thing you know, you're in someone's trunk on a clear, sunny and (ostensibly) dry day. Let's, as you say, see AI cope with those circumstances.

People who don't want to drive, or are not competent at doing so, shouldn't.

I couldn't agree more.

Plus, who's to blame in the event of a RTC?

"RTC"?

[jimallyn]

Electric cars are not the way to go

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business ... story.html

Yes, electric cars ARE the way to go. Imposing taxes on them is the wrong thing to do.

[all41]

Electric cars are not the way to go

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business ... story.html

Yes, electric cars ARE the way to go. Imposing taxes on them is the wrong thing to do.

I agree. They should get the revenue just as gas powered vehicles do--at the pump--or in this case at the charging station. But what about those that charge the car at home?

[RollyShed]

N.B. I've never driven an automatic, by the way. Wouldn't know what to do with my left foot or be able to change gear when I want. As a driver, I want to be in FULL control of the vehicle at all times.

The problem is those who drive auto don't know how to. Have you ever smelled cars that have come down a long hill? The smell of very used brake pads. It is obvious they have never thought of locking the auto down a gear or so and using the engine to do the braking as we who drive manual are so used to doing - if we know how to drive.

[jimallyn]

But what about those that charge the car at home?

As long as the electricity to charge their cars comes from solar, wind, hydro, or other clean energy source, they're fine. If it comes from fossil fuels, then it should be taxed massively and replaced with clean energy sources as quickly as possible. Like, within a decade.

[all41]

No matter the energy source though, there still has to be infrastructure-related user fees involved.
Someone has to pay for highways and upkeep.

[HaveaMint]

I am certain many have been driving in cold weather as a front blows in and suddenly you drive into warm air ahead of the front and all windows fog up to where you can't see anything going 70+ miles an hour. This is how I feel with self driving autos.

[HaveaMint]

I really don't know how self driving autos work but what happens when a bug splats on the window of where the auto looks out for self driving, does it hit the brakes and then you are a bug splat on the inside.

[Pjotr]

I've never driven a manual transmission car. Conceptually, I understand what goes on, but operationally... wouldn't have a clue. I want to move to Germany in the next year or two, and I'm hoping I can track down an automatic

That should be no problem.... Neither new nor second-hand. Enough supply to choose from. In Germany as well as in its neighbouring country The Netherlands.

I myself have learned to drive with a manual transmission (like almost all Dutchmen), but my first car had (more or less by coincidence) an automatic transmission. I liked it so much that all my subsequent cars have been, and are, equipped with an automatic transmission.

I still like to drive in a car with a manual transmission from time to time (about once a year or so), in order to retain the skill. But that's about it. Manual transmissions belong to the Dark Ages, like archery.

As far as Tesla's and other electrical self-driving cars are concerned: in The Netherlands those are toys for the rich, largely paid for by taxing the cheap third- or fourth-hand ordinary gas cars of the poor. Tesla's may not smell from an exhaust pipe, but boy do they stink in the nostrils of civilisation.

[Moem]

I've never driven a manual transmission car. Conceptually, I understand what goes on, but operationally... wouldn't have a clue. I want to move to Germany in the next year or two, and I'm hoping I can track down an automatic because I don't really think I'm at a point where I can learn how to function in another country while at the same time trying to learn how to up- and downshift my car.

That's what lessons are for. No one expects you to learn that all by yourself. But yes, automatics are available, too.
Personally I would still want to learn to use a manual transmission car anyway, so I could take over from a friend if they're drunk or unwell, or simply too tired to drive safely.