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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".
The same investigation found that Tesla’s crash rate was reduced by 40% after introduction of Autopilot:
https://electrek.co/2017/01/19...
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.
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.
So you are saying that Autopilot is mis-named even for aviation?
Then Autopilot should just be deflated and no longer used.
I'm going to guess by your screen name that you must have used the manual inflation nozzle on the automatic pilot.
A British Truck. I am not sure why it was driving in the US