Tesla Owner In China Blames Autopilot For Crash (usatoday.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from USA Today: The owner of a Tesla Motors Model S sedan in China reportedly said his vehicle crashed into a car on the side of the road while the vehicle's Autopilot system was engaged, but the automaker said the driver was using the system improperly. Luo Zhen, 33, of Beijing told Reuters that his vehicle collided with a parked car on the left side of a highway, damaging both vehicles but injuring no one. He criticized Tesla sales people for allegedly describing the vehicle as "self-driving." "The impression they give everyone is that this is self-driving, this isn't assisted driving," he told Reuters. In the new case in China, Tesla said the Model S was "following closely behind the car in front of it when the lead car moved to the right to avoid hitting the parked car." "The driver of the Tesla, whose hands were not detected on the steering wheel, did not steer to avoid the parked car and instead scraped against its side," Tesla said Wednesday in a statement. "As clearly communicated to the driver in the vehicle, Autosteer is an assist feature that requires the driver to keep his hands on the steering wheel at all times, to always maintain control and responsibility for the vehicle, and to be prepared to take over at any time."

Comments

Autopilot is a glorified cruise control

[guruevi]

I never heard about people being that stupid when cruise control was introduced into the mainstream. Autopilot, as it stands, is a smarter form of cruise control (it basically helps you maintain the speed without your foot on the pedal but it's a bit fancier than a fixed speed)

Re:Autopilot is a glorified cruise control

[Anonymous Coward]

the damning thing is really that tesla doesn't disengage the autopilot or stop the car if the driver isn't holding the wheel for extended periods of time. the driver could be dead and the car might be driving still 40 km later.

Re:Autopilot is a glorified cruise control

[umghhh]

Autopilots in all other devices do not really pilot anything unattended. From wiki on autopilot: "Autopilots do not replace a human operator, but assist them in controlling the vehicle, allowing them to focus on broader aspects of operation". That humans are stupid is clear. You cannot even fix it with proper naming - no naming in he world would stop people fucking around while this thing is apparently driving on its own 'all the time'. We have now airports that allow properly equipped airplanes to land autonomously - these planes still have pilots. They may be occupied 4 times during the flight (of which tow are to say welcome and bye) but they are still there. Technology progress is still on and we will surely see these things going alone ever more but not just yet. Till all humans get outsourced by automata they are obliged to watch what these automata do and take over in case they are about to fail. The guy is bound to get reckless driving charge in any normal country. Whether this is a dumper on Tesla's business model is another matter.

Re:Not suitable for all driving conditions

[ShanghaiBill]

From my understanding of driving conditions in China, it would take a pretty miraculous AI to prevent accidents there.

Not really. The rules in China are different, but probably simpler. Just slow down as you approach an intersection, ease into it, and slow down some more if you are going to collide with someone, turning a little to the left or right as you do so. If you watch the video you linked to, all the vehicles are using this simple algorithm. I lived in China for several years, and found it quite easy to adapt to their driving style. I had more difficulty adapting back to American style driving when I returned home. Americans go so fast.

It seems as though these driving assists and self-driving cars are going to have to be region-specific.

Definitely.

Dictionary Definition of Autopilot

[dcollins]

"a device that steers a ship, aircraft, or spacecraft in place of a person" -- Merriam-Webster

Gee, how could anyone be confused about that?

Re:Box

[ShanghaiBill]

Self-driving cars would be a great improvement, but, as Tesla keeps saying, these are not self-driving cars.

They are a step in that direction, and full SDCs will be only a software upgrade. All the necessary hardware is already in current Teslas. The risk of rushing the technology is far, far smaller than the risk of impeding it. America needs to stop being the "can't do" country.

Re:bad driving

[drinkypoo]

And why doesn't Tesla simply call it, "Cruise Control Plus" or something catchy like that instead of giving people the wrong idea?

What the actual fuck? Cruise control does not steer. Distance-sensitive cruise control is cruise control plus. This is something else entirely. Something which controls heading and speed but which does not take complete responsibility for the vehicle. And do you know what we call a device like that? We call it an autopilot. You want Tesla to use a shit name that is less descriptive than what they are using now, and you'd call it an improvement. That's stupid bullshit. Don't be stupid, or bullshit.

Every single suggestion from a slashdotter as to what to call this feature is actually more confusing than autopilot, including yours. Buy a fucking dictionary, and spend some time with it.