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Tesla's Autopilot Mode Reportedly Saves Pedestrian's Life (electrek.co)
An anonymous reader writes: Following reports of Tesla's Autopilot mode being linked to a fatal crash, one Tesla Model S owner is reporting that the Autopilot mode has likely saved a pedestrian's life. The driver sent an email to Elon Musk explaining the situation, which was confirmed by Tesla through the vehicle logs: "I wanted to let you know that I think my car probably saved the life of a pedestrian last night, 7/16 around 10:30pm when I was driving in Washington DC with my daughter." The driver says him and his daughter were trying to locate where sirens were coming from "when a pedestrian stepped out in front of [their] Model S in the dark with dark clothes and in the middle of the road." The car slammed on its breaks before he could and "stopped just inches from hitting the pedestrian." The driver said, "I am not sure if I would have been able to stop before hitting him but I am so glad the car did." The Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), which is standard on all Tesla vehicles and is part of Tesla's Autopilot mode, is what was at work here. It appears that many of the convenience features of Autopilot were not activated at the time of the incident. This is likely the first of many good press stories released by Elon Musk, who said he would consider releasing the stories of accidents prevented by the Autopilot mode with the authorization of the Tesla owners and by confirming the events through the vehicle logs. Elon Musk did also announce Tesla's 'Master Plan, Part Deux,' which includes new kinds of Tesla vehicles, expanded solar initiatives, updates on Tesla's 'autopilot' technology, and a ride-sharing program.
...is there anything Elon won't do for PR?
0) We get it, dude, you misnamed "Autopilot" and now the US press is panning you for it. Your ego is too big to rename it - that would be admitting fault. So instead you're going to spin this to hell and back.
1) Autopilot didn't "save the life" in the same way that someone who runs toward someone with a knife then stops before stabbing them hasn't "saved" a life either - the DRIVER wouldf have killed someone but the DRIVER did not (remember who is supposed to be in control, Elon?), using the features of the car to assist his driving.
If I drove like a moronic asshat, and nearly killed some innocent person, only to be saved by a computer, I might not admit it so publically. Especially when the police and the DMV read the internet.
I would like to have the pedestrian's version of this encounter, but that might spoil the good press.
This was a collision avoidance system (most new cars have it), not Tesla's autopilot.
Sometimes, do you want to punch it? That's why I have a grill guard and spent a bit extra on bumpers.
Best of luck to him's daughter surpassing him's driving skills.
"breaks"
I know many people haven't actually walked on the earth, outside of their cars or a building in decades, but I'd like to let you know that it's actually very hard to "step in front of" a moving car.
What's easy however, is if the car is going too fast for conditions and the driver isn't paying attention, then it's easy to step into the zone in front of the car in which it can't stop, which grows exponentially with velocity.
I'm glad everyone is ok, but it's deeply misleading to portray this as heroic car, hapless driver and thankful pedestrian.
How long until, knowing their car's auto brake capability, people drive even faster and pay even less attention?
ESL post
Vehicle logs are the real story here. This is at least the third of these stories where I see something to the effect of: "confirmed by Tesla through the vehicle logs".
The question is who will have access to these logs, when and under what conditions?
"The Man" will love this shit.
I knew they weren't reliable but breaking down in order to stop seems a little extreme.
The driver says him and his daughter were trying to locate where sirens were coming from "when a pedestrian stepped out in front of [their] Model S in the dark with dark clothes and in the middle of the road." The car slammed on its breaks before he could and "stopped just inches from hitting the pedestrian." The driver said, "I am not sure if I would have been able to stop before hitting him but I am so glad the car did." The Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), which is standard on all Tesla vehicles and is part of Tesla's Autopilot mode, is what was at work here. It appears that many of the convenience features of Autopilot were not activated at the time of the incident.
So what happened is the driver was driving the vehicle, a situation happened for which he was unprepared but was a probable accident, and the AI took over and prevented the accident.
Almost no one is complaining about this scenario, and if I recall other car companies have deployed something similar and it's a decent first step towards autonomous vehicles.
The problem with the "autopilot" is it essentially allows the AI to do all of the driving, meaning the human invariably stops paying attention and the AI becomes almost exclusively responsible for driving safely.
Its great that the AI is good enough that it prevented this accident, it still doesn't make the pseudo self-driving mode a good idea.
I stole this Sig
It's a grate story. But I think the car activated its brakes, not its breaks.
NOW?!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Do all the logs go to Tesla automatically or does the company only go fetch them after an accident (or when someone writes in with a report like this and implicitly gives their permission to access the information)? If everything gets sent to Tesla there are huge privacy implications. They know what stores you go to and how often, your habits, and many other things that can be determined by your driving habits. They could probably make a fair bit of money selling that information to advertisers.
The problem is, people will ignore the ten good things you did (such as saving this pedestrian's life), but will focus laser-like on the one bad thing you did (such as hitting that white truck crossing the road).
collision avoidance system. I saw ads on tv for this 2 maybe 3 years ago from Volvo I think, and then benz had one, mazda, gm, ford, ... Heck who doesn't have one? And then over a decade ago HUD system's incorporated IR imaging to detect people/animals and put it up in the HUD. This of course is before anyone connected brakes to the system.
>"The driver says him and his daughter were trying"
Him was? Eeek... who wrote this???
Have you had your BRAKE today?
- News for morons, and stuff.
From the sound of it. Autopilot was not engaged and it was auto braking that saved the day. They were not on a freeway or highway, they were on a street with intersections where pedestrians might cross. Not autopilot territory. Auto braking happens even when auto pilot is not enabled or engaged. Auto braking is available on several other car makes.
Auto Braking is Not the same as Auto steering.
You would Need to be a real idiot to let the car slam on the breaks every time and not use the padal.
Sorry Auto Pilot Not a win.
You don't know what they're for, you don't know where they're coming from, they make you have knee jerk reactions, and they basically accomplish nothing but inciting panic. Just like 99% of honking.
It's true everywhere in the US except Nevada.
I find it funny they wait 2 month after a death to announce it (after large stock sales) but take 5 days to announce this. :)
This poor tortured soul tried to commit suicide and an AI wouldn't let him. The computers do want us as slaves. Be afraid!
It happened with ABS and airbags. People felt safer, so they went faster.
Got any evidence to back that assertion up? Personally I've never heard of anyone saying some permutation of "yeah, I've got ABS and an airbag so I'm invulnerable now". Show me some statistics that demonstrate a significant increase in accidents attributable to ABS and/or airbags.
The problem with the "autopilot" is it essentially allows the AI to do all of the driving, meaning the human invariably stops paying attention and the AI becomes almost exclusively responsible for driving safely.
That's certainly a concern though I think perhaps an overblown one. There might be an "uncanny valley" between crude automation like Tesla's technology and fully automated driving where people have a hard time maintaining concentration. The jury is still out on this but it's a possibly failure mode worth considering even if it turns out to be a non issue ultimately.
On the other hand I have had cruise control in my car for decades and when I engage it I actually seem to pay more attention which is kind of the opposite of what I expected. Two reasons, 1) fewer activities for me to have to do so some amount of my brain is freed up to concentrate on what's around me and 2) I'm still concerned about my physical well being. I've spoken to others who have had similar experience where the cruise control caused them to pay more attention. While that's not really scientific evidence it tells me that we shouldn't be to quick to draw conclusions about the effects of autopilot vs the human brain before we have evidence.
Very interesting report and thanks for sharing. However that report explicitly states that ABS had no measurable effect on the aggressiveness of driver. From the report: "The research, in fact, did not identify any significant problems with ABS other than owners’ initial lack of knowledge and experience with the systems. There was little evidence of any behaviors that would cause drivers of vehicles equipped with ABS to run off the road. There was also little evidence that drivers became more aggressive when they had ABS." (page 11)
The poster is referring to risk compensation.
I'm aware of that fact. However he provided no evidence that conclusively demonstrated that it was a factor. It's a seemingly logical inference but the evidence for it seems to be generally lacking.
Multiple studies show that with the introduction of abs brakes people follow more closely.
There are plenty of studies which indicate that it has no measurable effect on driver aggressiveness including one conducted by the NTHSA provided by one of the other slashdot readers. I consider the NTHSA a reliable source on this matter but even if the others are reliable as well, which one am I to believe? Contradictory studies cannot both be correct.
Similar things are observed with seat belts and some people argue w bike helmets
Even if true those safety devices clearly and substantially improve safety for those who use them. There is no point to a system like Tesla's autopilot if it does not improve overall safety. There may be conditions where it performs worse but it's still worthwhile if it improves safety overall.
if they did then distracted pilots would be crashing planes left and right. The airline industry figured this out years ago, it's sad that we have to relearn the same lessons now in the automotive industry.
Nobody talks like that. You mean "Elon Musk also announced ...".
At the bottom of the
"The driver says him and his daughter..."
"The car slammed on its breaks..."
That should be, "The driver says he and his daughter were trying to locate where sirens were coming from..." This has been your grammar Nazi post for the day.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
Being, 'reportedly'. Too vague, and it comes at a time when musk is in full-on spin mode. I call bullshit.
If you turn off autopilot mode on or off it has no effect on AEB. AEB is always on by default and can only be temporarily disabled.
They are advertised as logically separate features to the end user.
Plenty of modern gas-engine cars make no noise besides tire noise on normal local roads. Living on a corner with a stop sign I observe that even accelerating from a stop is essentially silent for many modern non-electric vehicles.
Every time one of these "pedestrian hit/almost hit" stories is posted a bunch of people come out of the woodwork claiming that it's their constitutional right to put on black jeans, a black t-shirt, and a black hoodie then run across dark streets and if they get hit it the driver's fault, physics be damned, we all just need to creep along in our cars at walking speed any time it's dark or there are trees or parked cars along the side of the road.
I suspect this is all just part of the larger War on Cars wherein a bunch of leftwing environazis decided it's absolutely intolerable that transportation is responsible for a whopping 31% of carbon emissions (note that figure is ALL transportation, including cars, semitrucks, trains, boats, and planes--I'd be surprised if cars were even half of that 31%), so we have to make life as miserable as possible for anyone who drives a car. I've seriously asked a bunch of my liberal friends what sort of sense does it make to harass people just trying to get to their jobs when, even if you completely eliminated cars, you'd still have, at best, 70% of present carbon emissions being spewed out by other sources, only to be met with blank stares. The current crop of environmentalist fedora-tippers do not care about facts or logic--they only care about feels, and their feels tell them that cars are the most horrible thing for the environment ever. Clearly the best way to combat climate change is to make our transportation system even more inefficient with road diets, bus-only lanes, and expensive toll roads. After all, cars sitting idling in traffic or creeping along at 5 mph is great for the environment, right guys?
For the record, I actually care about the environment and think we shouldn't fuck it up for future generations. But the current left wing in this country are a bunch of useful idiots that will cheer on government subsidies for absolutely moronic ideas because, to them, the environment is just a bit of bait to be used to get closer to their real goal--more government control. Try suggesting to one these people that market-based solutions can actually work (like, hey, you know one of the reasons electronics, cars, and residential/commercial HVAC have gotten incredibly more efficient in recent decades is because it benefits consumers by saving them money), and be prepared to be met with open hostility for having the gaul to suggest that corporations are anything but cartoon-caricature villains twirling their mustaches as smoke pours out of their factories.
I'll continue driving my car where I need to go, thanks very much. Your attempts to give me an "incentive" (hey, maybe if you use economic-related words people will actually think you know something about economics) to take the bus or ride a bike will fail because, to put it frankly, even sitting in my car crawling along at 5 mph is preferable to the government-run joke of a public transportation system:
- In my car, I don't have to worry about crackheads asking me for cigarettes or money and flipping their shit when I tell them "no". When did it become fucking acceptable for people to feel they're entitled to my hard-earned property?
- In a similar vein, my car doesn't smell like piss and shit.
- Literally every parking spot in every park&ride near me will be full before 7 am, and I'm not leaving three hours before I actually have to be somewhere.
- I recently took the bus into downtown to go to the Pride festival, on a Sunday (you can probably guess which city I'm in), you would think that the bus system might add some extra routes given that they know there's this huge festival that a lot of people are going to, right? Nope! Standing room only, ass-to-crotch on the way there and back. I feel bad for the peopl
Well, please tell that to the vehicles driving in front of my house.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
It would be great if the car could copy-edit the testimonials that are written about it, too!