Self-Driving Tesla Owners Share Videos of Reckless Driving (nytimes.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The driver killed in a Tesla car accident "celebrated the Autopilot feature that made it possible for him to cruise the highways, making YouTube videos of himself driving hands-free," reports the New York Times, adding that one of his videos of a near-miss went viral just 11 weeks before his death -- after it was shared on Twitter by Elon Musk. But USA Today reports that Tesla drivers have also filmed themselves playing Jenga and Checkers or sleeping while using the autopilot feature. "Even though Tesla tells drivers to 'keep your hands on the wheel at all times and stay alert,' the temptation to test a no-hands drive is just too much."

In April, a Volvo driver had criticized Tesla for releasing a dangerous "wannabe" Autopilot system. But when Tesla introduced the self-driving feature in October, Elon Musk argued that "Long term, it'll be way better than a person. It never gets tired, never has something to drink, never argues with someone in the car." He had also said that within three years Tesla cars should be able to drive a sleeping driver in to work -- but that that functionality is not currently supported.

Comments

Tesla's Autopilot is in the "uncanny valley"

[Pentium100]

I mean it is almost like having a self-driving car that you do not need to pay attention to the road most of the time and the car will not go into a ditch or rear-end another car.

So you can get bored by having absolutely nothing to do, so the temptation of doing something is just too great. And it works most of the time, the autopilot keeps the car on the road and avoids danger.

Except for that 0.01% when it fails and you have to react as quickly as if you have been driving all this time.

When driving regular car, you have to make frequent minor adjustments to keep the car on the road (the road isn't straight after all), so there is less time to get as bored as when you have nothing to do.

My grandfather worked as a bus driver for a while (driving between cities), he told me that the road from Kaunas to Vilnius (in Lithuania) was too straight for him and he had trouble not falling asleep at the wheel (so he used to talk to the passengers etc and never actually fell asleep), while driving to other cities was easier because the road is not as straight.

Using the autopilot most likely looks like driving on a completely straight road with a car that does not veer to any direction by itself.

Re:Tesla's Autopilot is in the "uncanny valley"

[Anonymous Coward]

This is why in the Netherlands, highways are designed to be not straight but with gentle curves. Just enough to keep the long distance driver occupied, but no nearly enough for a twisty turny stressfest.

Re:Tesla's Autopilot is in the "uncanny valley"

[johnw]

I've been driving for 40 years now.

In that entire time, I've had only 5 (maybe 6) occasions when I had to pay attention to the road.

You need to pay attention to the road the whole time. I think you mean you've had only 5 or 6 occasions when you've needed to take emergency evasive action. I'm intrigued as to where you live. I've been driving a similar length of time in the UK and would reckon on incidents such as you describe happening 5 or 6 times a year. My most recent one was when I was driving a mini-bus last week, and a lady coming out of a side road just decided she could pull across my path right in front of me. Cue emergency stop and people nearly sliding off seats.

If you aren't paying attention to the road all the time, then you won't be ready to respond when these things happen.

In fact, most the time driving home from work people are in a semi-trance like state.

Now there I have to agree with you.

Requiring people to pay attention is futile

[viralbus]

I believe self-driving cars will eventually take over. However, this accident does highlight one fallacy, namely the idea that a human driver can be expected to supervise a near-perfect self-driving car.

Just think about it: If your car has been driving perfectly for a whole year, would you find it easy to keep your eyes glued to road and your hands to the steering wheel, just in case the car’s computer has a nervous breakdown? Wouldn’t you start playing with your smartphone, eat a sandwich or even doze off for ten minutes?

What this accident shows is that Google’s model (where the car is fully autonomous and the passengers don’t even have access to a steering wheel) is correct, and Tesla’s is doomed. If a car is driving on its own, nobody should pretend that a human is ultimately in charge.

Yes, definitely assholes

[fyngyrz]

Elon Musk certainly doesn't know.

Elon Musk, in the person of his company, explicitly said this was not a hands-off system. The only assholes here are the people moaning about the moron who used it hands-off and got himself killed, Darwin-award-style.

1) Tesla: "Do not drive hands-off, maintain attention"

2) [Moron drives hands-off, or worse, attention off] FATAL ACCIDENT

3) Moron elements of society: have meltdown over perceived shortcoming, "investigation launched" by moron elements of government

The only useful thing that can be learned here for those of us who didn't already know, yet are able to learn, is that there are some morons out there with enough money to buy a Tesla and kill themselves by directly going against the manufacturer's instructions for safe use.

Well, okay, also, for those of us who didn't already know, yet are able to learn, there are other morons out there who are so blindingly stupid as to try to place the blame for this at Musk's / Tesla's feet. Some of those morons are in government.

I'm not entirely sure how, exactly, anyone could not already know these things unless they've been locked in a windowless room without human contact all their lives, or suffers an IQ less than their shoe size, or both, but... yet it is so.

The New York Times | Florida traffic crash

[fred911]

Did anyone bother to look at the graphic (top of page here: http://www.nytimes.com/interac...) ?

  I would assume that if there were traffic control at this intersection it would show limit lines. Without traffic control, it looks like the truck clearly failed to yield right of way. Many times unsafe truck drivers use their size as intimidation to passenger vehicles, failing to yield right of way and just being unsafe. Try to drive 10 miles over the posted speed limit on the Garden State Pky (even in the "slow" lane) without having a 9 ton tractor 1 foot off your bumper and you'll know exactly what I mean.

  Situations where the opposing traffic makes a left hand turn (stateside) kills many, many human drivers No one can assume that even a human here could have avoided the collision except for the truck driver who clearly failed to yield right of way.

  Smells like media bullshit to me.

Re:It's not that good

[aralin]

If you drive on the same road over and over again, it will actually learn how you go into the curve and also how other Tesla drivers do it. Eventually after you drive through it enough times, the auto-pilot will be driving just as smooth as you are. I would suggest to read up a bit on the Fleet Learning feature.

http://mashable.com/2015/10/14...
http://www.teslarati.com/upcom...