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Third Tesla Crashes Amid Report of SEC Investigation (usatoday.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Tesla hasn't had the best month so far as not one, not two, but a total of three crashes have been reported with the car's Autopilot self-driving system engaged at the time -- two of which resulted in fatalities. In addition, The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether Tesla violated securities law by failing to disclose more quickly a fatal accident in Florida in May involving a Tesla Model S that was in self-driving mode. The SEC didn't comment on the report, and Tesla issued a statement saying it has "not received any communication from the SEC regarding this issue." As for the Autopilot crash that was reported today, the driver said he activated Autopilot mode at the beginning of his trip. Tesla is looking into the crash and has yet to confirm whether or not Autopilot was a factor. Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased a "Top Secret Tesla Masterplan, Part 2" via Twitter that he is "Hoping to publish later this week."
Here come the lawsuits and the bankruptcy. Get out while you can.
When one attempts to make something idiot-proof, nature builds a better idiot. Not necessarily true, but we live in world where innovators are hampered by the chance of being sued by idiots who just-don't-listen.
"Fire is hot", "peanuts may contain peanuts", "online play not rated", "cruise control is not auto-pilot", "autopilot is experimental", etc.
Beta-testing is work.
What I wonder is whether the automated steering fights the driver if said driver takes over to correct a computational error.
In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
Microsoft is trying to climb through the storm clouds. People are starting to get a clue and see how shit-stained Facebook really is. The tiny nugglets of poo that are known as Groupon and Zynga flamed out but still cling around the anus.
VC has been having trouble finding any hipsterific ideas that have the staying power to make it to the cash-out phase.
Now Tesla's march upwards may finally falter.
If we start seeing slippage in Google's ad revenue then it's time to batten down the hatches.
Seriously, can't we just have a nice electric car without all this self-driving crap screwing it up?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
How many lives has Tesla saved now? Is anyone keeping count??
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Sigh. One of the crashes resulted in one fatality. The other two crashes, no fatalities. (And it is not yet known whether Autopilot was engaged at the time of those two incidents.)
Getting distracted with Autopilot engaged is like removing your seatbelt because you have airbags. You may be able to occasionally get away with it, but it's still an incredibly dumb thing to do. (And the former endangers other drivers, not just yourself.) The silver lining of these incidents is that maybe more drivers will start paying more attention while using AP, though it should have been up to Tesla to properly instill this sense of caution to begin with.
And side skirts/guards should really be mandated for trailers nationwide. (They're already mandated in California.) It may not physically prevent an underride at high speed, but it doesn't have to; the radar is much more likely to detect them and trigger collision-avoidance braking. It's only a small patch for a small part of the problem, but better than not patching it at all.
Weeks of coding saves hours of planning.
.This guy's other company is a *SUCCESSFUL* rocket design, manufacturing and launching firm. So assuming the programmers he has on his automotive company are sub-par is a bit of a stretch until proven otherwise. While elon musk may be many things, a GM quality CEO he is not. (In case that wasn't clear, I was insulting GM, not Musk.)
And I'm saying this as someone who doesn't particularly like the guy. He so far has proven worthy of respect. He may be cavalier, but he gets shit done, and often both cheaper and relatively safer than his predecessors have, despite up to a 50 year lead on him.