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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."
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)
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You are a perfect illustration of the problem Tesla faces. You think you know what an airplane's autopilot does, based solely on the name, but you have no real clue.
Some, not all, modern autopilots in airplanes can land an airplane provided the the airport is a Cat IIIb or Cat IIIc; i.e.: they require a fair bit of active infrastructure on the airport. In other situations, or with the rest of the installed autopilots in the world, they will only assist the pilot in keeping the planes attitude and heading.
Yet whenever an airplane - be it a small private plane or a passenger jet - crashes when on autopilot, no one is suggesting the pilot is free of blame...
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
Meanwhile, over a thousand people per day are dying in traffic accidents worldwide. SDCs likely could prevent most of those. You want that progress held up because, what, 3 people have died in a year? Get some sense of perspective.
The sensor does stop the car after a couple of minutes of not touching the wheel or responding to prompts.
I don't think forcing the user to keep their hands on the wheel at all times will help much. Take a look at this video of a guy sleeping with autopilot on, presumably with one hand on the wheel so that it thinks he is paying attention.
The real issue here is that if the car does 99.9% of the work for hours on end you can't really expect human beings to remain attentive and ready to take over in a fraction of a second. Tesla have found the danger zone of inattentiveness between a high level of automation and full autonomy.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
There are two sets of rules in China, the simple and the complicated.
The simple:
1. There are no rules.
The complicated:
1. Lane markings are just to keep painters employed and can be ignored.
2. Traffic police are to keep traffic police employed and can be ignored.
3. Indicators are just to boost the lightbulb industry and don't serve any purpose.
4. Horns are to communicate with drivers in all circumstances even if you have absolutely nothing to say.
5. You always have right of way if you're bigger, infront, or more cars are queued up behind you than queued up behind the person you're cutting off.
6. It is always the other person's fault.
7. No the red light it meaningless it is always the other person's fault.
In many ways the auto-pilot did the right thing and just ran into the person who dared to let you run into him.
The tricky problem about this technology is that it is aimed at taking the burden away from what is required to be able to take over. At least, most people perceive it that way at first. Proper training is required and you know what? In the end, it requires more concentration to watch on standby ready to take over than manually driving the car yourself.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
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.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"