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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."
The way the news cycle goes:
1) Person gets in an accident
2) Person blames autopilot
3) News widely reports that autopilot caused a crash
4) Evidence of whether autopilot was actually involved is returned.
Autopilot has been involved in crashes. But most of the "autopilot did it!" stories have turned out to be false. It seems to be a pretty easy thing to blame to try to get out of liability if you wreck your car.
That's not saying that any of the cases above specifically did not involve autopilot (we know for example that the fatal one did, that's been confirmed). But until it's confirmed, it's best to take these with a grain of salt. Tesla vehicles log bloody everything. If autopilot was in use at the time of the crash, it'll be there.
We also have a halon fire extinguisher. Its always nice to have a fire extinguisher that kills people around.
musk is using it wrong intentionally.
Eh... Autopilot means what I said it means and that's exactly what Musk says it means, too.
and fyi musk intends to keep calling it autopilot after it can drive itself.
This is one of those moments where you provide a link to the source. Otherwise I'm going to call bullshit on that. And no, the media calling Tesla's next-gen self-driving cars "autopilot" does not suffice; it has to be an official statement to be true.
i wouldnt be surprised if the way they marketed it would cost them the company.
You mean like this?
Some quotes from the video:
- "... keeping your hands on the wheel ..." ..." ..."
- "... if you wish to change lanes, check for space
- "... remember that these features are meant only for highway use
they did nothing to prevent drivers from taking the eyes off the road.
Should they sell a pack of glue with the car and an assistant to glue your eyes to the road?
teslas autopilot is 0% a safety feature
This is again one of those times where you provide a source. Musk has said their Autopilot is approximately twice safer than human drivers. Feel free to disprove it here.
and evidently doesnt work even as brake assist...
Obviously you don't understand even what you wrote yourself: it's brake assist.
Could their technology be better? Of course. Is it to blame for these crashes? No. Ever since the Autopilot feature was launched, Tesla has been mentioning everywhere that it's *not* a self-driving car and it's a support function for the driver to improve safety.
People have read so much about Google's self-driving cars that they think autopilot === self-driving, but obviously you can't fix stupid. And there are plenty of stupid to go around, free for everyone to parrticipate.