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Man Says Tesla Autopilot Saved His Life By Driving Him To the Hospital (cnbc.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the life-savers dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Last month a man sent an email to Elon Musk explaining how his Tesla Model S with Autopilot activated may have saved a pedestrian's life. Now, it appears Autopilot may have saved the life of a Tesla Model X driver. CNBC reports: "A Missouri man says his Tesla helped saved his life by driving him to the hospital during a life-threatening emergency. Joshua Neally is a lawyer and Tesla owner from Springfield, Missouri, who often uses the semi-autonomous driving system called Autopilot on his Tesla Model X. The system has come under fire after it was involved in a fatal Florida crash in May, but Neally told online magazine Slate that Autopilot drove him 20 miles down a freeway to a hospital, while Neally suffered a potentially fatal blood vessel blockage in his lung, known as a pulmonary embolism. The hospital was right off the freeway exit, and Neally was able to steer the car the last few meters and check himself into the emergency room, the report said."

12 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Not to diminish the usefulness of the feature by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not to diminish the usefulness of the feature, but wouldn't it have made more sense to call an ambulance? The auto-pilate might be able to get you there, but if you need immediate treatment, the Tesla can't do much for you.

    1. Re:Not to diminish the usefulness of the feature by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Odd, I would expect the auto-Pilate function to crucify me, not to save me.

    2. Re:Not to diminish the usefulness of the feature by Adriax · · Score: 4, Funny

      An Auto-Pilates system wouldn't be very good either. I'm pretty sure exercise is a bad idea for people with a pulmonary embolism.

      --
      I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
    3. Re:Not to diminish the usefulness of the feature by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Not to diminish the usefulness of the feature, but wouldn't it have made more sense to call an ambulance?

      Yes, and no. Pulmonary embolism (PE) survivor here. I had mine for over a week before my employer finally told me they would not give me any more hours until I went to the hospital. Yes because there is plenty of time to get an ambulance, and for the same reason, no. But arriving in an ambulance will get you looked at sooner when you get there. I walked to the hospital though (very slowly). Twice. The first time I left after waiting 90 minutes in the emergency room without seeing a single medical professional, just a few cleaners (this was mid-afternoon). I went back the next day and when someone finally saw me, they put me in intensive care immediately, do not pass go. By that point I was bringing up not insignificant amounts of blood.

      I have been through a lot of physical pain in my life, but there is no pain like PE pain. Can't sleep, or even lie down for a week pain. It was intense.

      Interestingly, in the process, being unable to yawn during that week because it was too painful, I now have a theory that yawning has some respiratory function. Once I could yawn again I really appreciated it, and could feel its effect.

    4. Re:Not to diminish the usefulness of the feature by gweilo8888 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This. Instead of hyping Tesla, this idiot should have called for an ambulance. What happens if he passes out on the way to the hospital, and then his "autopilot" decides it can't quite tell what it's doing and reverts control the unconscious driver? An accident, that's what.

      Tesla owners really are a special kind of stupid to rely on autopilot like they do.

    5. Re:Not to diminish the usefulness of the feature by billmarrs · · Score: 5, Funny

      I wash my hands of these posts.

  2. call an ambulance by YesIAmAScript · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't risk wrecking or running over people on your way to the hospital. Call an ambulance. Even if it is expensive, if you can afford a $100K car you can afford to call an ambulance.

    --
    http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
    1. Re: call an ambulance by alcmena · · Score: 5, Informative

      Other articles were more clear. He was on the freeway, and he was worried, probably correctly, that he could drive there faster from where he was than an ambulance could arrive.

    2. Re:call an ambulance by gweilo8888 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This is the USA. We're the ultimate example of why privatization is a bad thing. Want ambulance service? Oh, no, you're taxes don't cover that. Pay up. House on fire? No, your taxes don't cover that either -- pay $900/year for the privilege of maybe having some of your stuff saved if it goes up in flames. Instead of the lowest possible cost spread across an entire nation, it's essentially legalized extortion and most people just try and do without.

      Oh, and that $900 figure? That's not made up. It's approximately what I'd be charged per year for fire service in my old house in a relatively less affluent neighborhood in a non-rural area of a reasonably large city. It's approximately 0.6% of the entire value of my house, every year. When I first moved here, I got a delightful letter from the local fire department -- which is why I call this extortion -- advising me that if I have a fire without paying up ahead of time, they'll either refuse to do anything except what's necessary to stop my house damaging a neighbor's house who paid up ahead of time, or they'll sit and watch my place burn until I agree to pay into the tens of thousands of dollars -- even if they don't manage to save a single thing.

      Nice, eh?

    3. Re:call an ambulance by Swave+An+deBwoner · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You may have missed the point.

      This is not about expectations of firefighters working for free, nor about cops.

      In most civilized locales, firefighters (and cops) are paid through public funds obtained via taxes.

      In rural Tennessee, it appears that the fire department is paid via individual homeowner "subscriptions", literally. If you don't subscribe then they will let your home and your pets (maybe your kids too, I don't know) burn. In fact it's not the firefighters who decided that, it was the pea-brained politicians and --, probably by the power of suggestion -- their constituents, who decided that. "No more taxes", yeah!

  3. Needed tweak for the release version by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 4, Funny

    This feat was impressive, but it will do no good unless Autopilot takes the driver to a hospital that takes his insurance plan.

  4. I hope his license is permanently revoked. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So he knew he was in need of urgent medical attention and he knew his driving was severly impaired, but instead of getting off the road and calling an ambulance, he continued to drive, relying on a system not at all designed for such circumstances?

    I have some sympathy for people who assume Auto Pilot will not have glaring blind spots due to trivial engineering shortcomings, but anyone who thinks it means you can drive while unconscious/dead is not fit to be on the road. Thank goodness he did not cause an accident on this busy freeway resulting in the injury/death of dozens of people.

    This is the archetypal selfish cunt, who may have made a lucky call on this occasion, but certianly did not make the right one.