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Tesla Avoids Recall After Autopilot Crash Death (bbc.com)
Tesla will not be ordered to recall its semi-autonomous cars in the US, following a fatal crash in May 2016. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration closed its investigation after it found no evidence of a defect in the vehicle. From a report: Joshua Brown was killed when his car collided with a lorry while operating in Autopilot mode. Tesla has stated Autopilot is only designed to assist drivers, who must keep their hands on the wheel. The feature is intended to be used on the motorway, where is lets cars automatically change lanes and react to traffic. The NHTSA report said data from the car showed that "the driver took no braking, steering or other actions to avoid the collision". Bryan Thomas from the NHSTA said the driver should have been able to see the lorry for seven seconds, which "should have been enough time to take some action".
Autopilots in planes are also assistpilots. People misunderstand what an autopilot does. The pilots in planes can't go to sleep or to the bathroom. They must sit there and monitor the system as it flies. They normally have more than 7 seconds to respond before impact things, so they don't have their hands constantly on the controls. Look at what happened to Air France flight 447 for what happens when the pilots aren't ready to take back control.
...Is it really an autopilot crash? Or some guy who, unfortunately, wasn't paying as much attention as he should whilst driving a 2 tonne hunk of metal around other human beings?
Well, you you read the statement in the summary:
The NHSTA is saying that while Tesla's autopilot features are made to help avoid collisions and improve safety, they are not legally responsible for keeping a driver safe. The driver still is responsible for operating the vehicle, including in emergency situations. The owner here did not make any attempt to avoid the collision but should have been aware of the situation. Either he was being an inattentive driver, or he deliberately failed to take action, expecting the Tesla system to instead. In either case the Tesla system is not the one to blame for the accident not being avoided.
People are lazy and stupid. If they have a toy that drives for them they are going to activate autopilot and not think they have to pay attention.
It's got to be all or nothing. This half-control is bullshit and is going to lead people into a false sense of security.
How can you be expected to both pay attention and not pay attention at the same time? If the car is driving then I promise you most people are going to be checking Facebook or watching movies. That's just how people are wired.
All or nothing. It's the only way to go.
The problem is that, human nature being what it is, a lot of drivers will come to rely too much on autopilot and will stop paying attention just like this guy apparently did. That will cause a lot of crashes just by itself. This isn't DIRECTLY the fault of autopilot, but is rather an INDIRECT consequence of having it (combined with human nature).
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Autopilot is an automated pilot, not an Autonomous pilot. It automates part of the flying of the aircraft. It is not a replacement pilot. It can't make decisions.
Typical logic-fail, overly-conservative, sheep-herd, think-of-the-children thinking.
In the absence of cars, no one would die in a car crash. However cars provide a massive overall benefit so we accept the risks.
In the absence of autopilot, (theoretically, pending more stats) many people would die in accidents that the 'autopilot' is quick enough to avoid and/or limit the severity of. 'Autopilot' (potentially) provides overall benefit even if it introduces some less severe risks that would not otherwise be present. Additionally, expecting this to be perfect is ridiculous anyway. Human drivers are extremely fallible. It doesn't take much to improve in the crash-and-death sense, not to mention traffic flow situations (compare humans merging 5 lanes to 1 for an accident/construction vs. AI)
Furthermore, the risk here is drivers mis-using a technology to begin with. You can mis-use almost anything. You do so at your own peril despite the eleven-teen billion warnings everywhere.
You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
TV and movies also tell me that I can fall 10 stories onto an awning and live, that cars explode when they flip over, that if you call the police they can trace your location within seconds, and that you can "enhance" grainy security camera images enough to see pimples. You can also be close enough to an explosion to get thrown through the air and walk away with only superficial injuries because shrapnel and gravity only happens to bad guys.