Tesla Tells Germany that 98% of Drivers Don't Find the Term 'Autopilot' Misleading (venturebeat.com)

An anonymous reader writes:Tesla has responded to Germany's request to stop using the word "autopilot" in its advertising, due to safety concerns, by carrying out a survey of Tesla-owners in Germany. It says that the overwhelming majority of customers it surveyed did not find the term confusing. Last month, German transport minister Alexander Dobrindt had asked Tesla to stop using "autopilot" in its messaging, as he felt the term implied that drivers could operate their vehicles without applying their attention to the roads. Tesla responded by saying that "autopilot" had been used in aerospace for a long time to describe a system that works in conjunction with a human operator. "Just as in an airplane, when used properly, autopilot reduces driver workload and provides an added layer of safety when compared to purely manual driving," a spokesperson said at the time. Without divulging exact numbers, Tesla has now said that it has "worked with a third party" to survey owners of its cars in Germany to "better understand how they perceive Autopilot." The company found that 98 percent of those surveyed "understand that when using Autopilot, the driver is expected to maintain control of the vehicle at all times."

Comments

There's a problem here.

[HBI]

I don't speak German and the word for "autopilot" in German - which I am not going to try to guess - probably has a subtly different meaning than in English. So I don't even know how to judge this article or the issue, and anyone not natively familiar with Deutsch lingo would be in the same state.

Re:There's a problem here.

[twistnatz]

The german word for "autopilot" is actually "autopilot" and it has the same meaning than in english.

Re: There's a problem here.

[joh]

The German word for "autopilot" is "Autopilot". Same meaning too.

Re:There's a problem here.

[Pahroza]

ow-toe-pee-lowt

Yeah, but that's the problem

[tietokone-olmi]

There's the 2% who figure that "autopilot" does in fact mean that the car's built-in computer does what the owner means. They may be the same 2% who figure that "cruise control" does that very same thing, but let's forgive them for this one: autopilot does literally mean that the car controls itself, much as automobile means that it moves itself.

And 2% of all drivers is tens of thousands of cars in Germany alone. By virtue of being heavy machinery, cars can cause terrible damage when they e.g. plow into oncoming traffic, or crowds of pedestrians. Or just a single deadly accident each, for those of us whose horror meters peg out at somewhere around four to six people dead.

Changing the nomenclature to something that's not quite as marketing-sexy is fairly fucking low a price for even one person not killed by a well-moneyed idiot's misconception. Trust the American billionaire not to see it this way, of course.

Re:Yeah, but that's the problem

[tietokone-olmi]

That's the Idiot's America alright: doubling down on teh dumb.

Re:Yeah, but that's the problem

[david_thornley]

A speeding driver is a lot less dangerous than one who isn't paying attention. Actually, a speeding driver can be safer than a non-speeding driver. Speed makes accidents worse, but going with the flow of traffic makes accidents less likely.

Re:Autopilots in planes do not fly by themselves

[houghi]

I know Russian Roulette and can calculate the odds, but if you do not know the difference between a pistol and a revolver, your calculations might be a little bit off.

Re:It's that other 2% that is the problem...

[Anonymous Coward]

In Japanese Teslas, the term they use, translated back to English, is "Divine Wind".

Break it down.

[Gravis Zero]

While a real-life airplane autopilot just flies in a straight line, doing next to nothing, the term itself being broken into it's components literally means "self steering". Combine that how the term has been used culturally and it's not surprising that people would think that "autopilot" would be a fully autonomous driving mode.

So while Tesla is technically correct in naming it, they have ignored the connotations connected to the name.

Honestly, they should just rename it to "Copilot" and be done with the lawyering bullshit.

Re:Autopilots in planes do not fly by themselves

[Nidi62]

The problem is most people outside the aviation industry assume autopilot does pretty much everything, when in reality it just maintains speed and altitude along a preprogrammed route.

Depends on the autopilot. Category III and later autopilots can automatically land in autoland-compliant airports. And that functionality isn't particularly uncommon these days. And ACAS-capable planes will at least attempt to avoid a mid-air collision as well, but this hardware is relatively rare, I think.

What makes autopilot on the ground so different is how much higher the risk of travel path incursion is, whether temporarily (by other vehicles, pedestrians, or potholes) or permanently (by curbs, center barriers, etc.).

The thing about CAT II/III autoland is that you are doing it at a fixed location along a known and restricted path and it can only be done under certain conditions, and you know the flight crew isn't using it as a chance to crack open some beers and pregame before they hit the layover hotel bar, they are paying attention in case they need to take over or initiate a go around. Just like Tesla's autopilot.