Are Tesla Crashes Balanced Out By The Lives That They Save? (eetimes.com)

Friday EE Times shared the story of a Tesla crash that occurred during a test drive. "The salesperson suggested that my friend not brake, letting the system do the work. It didn't..." One Oregon news site even argues autopiloted Tesla's may actually have a higher crash rate.

But there's also been stories about Teslas that have saved lives -- like the grateful driver whose Model S slammed on the brakes to prevent a collision with a pedestrian, and another man whose Tesla drove him 20 miles to a hospital after he'd suddenly experienced a pulmonary embolism. (Slate wrote a story about the incident titled "Code is My Co-Pilot".) Now an anonymous Slashdot reader asks: How many successes has the autopilot had in saving life and reducing damage to property? What is the ratio of these successes to the very public failures?
I'd be curious to hear what Slashdot readers think. If you add it all up, are self-driving cars keeping us safer -- or just making us drive more recklessly?

Comments

Opinions are worthless

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd be curious to hear what Slashdot readers think. If you add it all up, are self-driving cars keeping us safer -- or just making us drive more recklessly?

Who cares what Slashdot readers think? This isn't something where opinions or anecdotes matter. Do (or read) a study, collect data. Then you'll have an answer.

Re:Opinions are worthless

[haruchai]

like the grateful driver whose Model S slammed on the brakes to prevent a collision with a pedestrian

There are other cars equipped with lane-keeping technology and automatic emergency braking. However the makers of these cars don't pretend that they are a completely autonomous car.

Some day we will get there sure, but the "Auto-Pilot" technology in Tesla is no more advanced than what's available in other manufacturer's products.

It is. It routinely performs better than the competition in testing by car reviewers. But it isn't good enough - yet - and I don't know when it'll be.
My personal opinion is that if I'm buying a $100k performance car, I'M DRIVING, not some autistic software robot.
But I know one day I'll be too old to care & technology will be good enough - but not today & not soon.
Elon clearly disagrees but I worry that the software quality & testing isn't rigorous enough and legislators may crack down, which may be a good thing.

And George Hotz is dangerously smart - and recklessly stupid.

Re:Does Tesla actually make a profit?

[0100010001010011]

Without being subsidized would GM or Chrysler have been viable companies?

Re:Show me the data

[SolemnLord]

An article over on Forbes already looked into this.

The TL;DR version is that Tesla's autopilot has 1 fatality per 130M miles driven, while the US average of all vehicle-related fatalities comes out to about one per 94M miles. That's 94M miles under all roads, all conditions, compared to Tesla's autopilot being driven almost exclusively on highways.

Even as a Tesla critic, absolutely yes they are

[macsimcon]

A few score may die now to save hundreds of thousands later. Have you driven on the freeways of America lately? People drift into your lane, they don't stay centered in their own lane. Drivers are looking at their phones while they're driving, no matter what the laws say. People are NOT as qualified to drive a car as a computer which checks its sensors hundreds of times per second.

Autonomous cars are the future, and Tesla is pushing that forward. There are going to be mistakes in the beginning, and people will die and be injured.

Driving is dangerous, but we don't outlaw cars because their utility outweighs the risk. Same here.

Re:Even as a Tesla critic, absolutely yes they are

[AthanasiusKircher]

Driving is dangerous,

Is it? I drive a fair bit, and sure it's more risky than lying on your couch, but not by much. I think the word 'danger' gets over-exaggerated these days considering how safe just about everything is relative to even 50 years ago.

Umm, yes, driving IS dangerous -- it's basically one of the most dangerous things people do. "Unintentional injury" is the leading cause of death in people age 1-44 (and the third highest after cancer and heart disease in people aged 45-64), according to CDC stats.

And of those causes classified as "unintentional injury" again according to the CDC, motor vehicle accidents are either the LEADING or second-highest cause of death for all of those age groups.

Bottom line -- being involved with cars (either as driver, passenger, or as a pedestrian around cars) is basically the MOST dangerous single activity people deliberately choose to do on a regular basis.