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Tesla Rejected More Advanced Driver Monitoring Features On Its Cars, Says Report (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Engineers inside Tesla wanted to add robust driver monitoring systems to the company's cars to help make sure drivers safely use Autopilot, and Tesla even worked with suppliers on possible solutions, according to The Wall Street Journal. But those executives -- Elon Musk included -- reportedly rejected the idea out of worry that the options might not work well enough, could be expensive, and because drivers might become annoyed by an overly nagging system.

Tesla considered a few different types of monitoring: one that would track a driver's eyes using a camera and infrared sensors, and another that involved adding more sensors to the steering wheel to make sure that the driver is holding on. Both ideas would help let the car's system know if the driver has stopped paying attention, which could reduce the chance of an accident in situations where Autopilot disengages or is incapable of keeping the car from crashing. Musk later confirmed on Twitter that the eye tracking option was "rejected for being ineffective, not for cost."

3 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. The Shorts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sort of ..... the markets rely on Musk raising capital. And Moody's bond rating of Tesla is based upon that.

    What Musk discounted was that the "shorts" - the folks that short stocks - aren't people who wake up one day and think, "I hate this company."

    They are mostly CPAs and lawyers and total accounting geeks. They examine financial documents like we read sci-fi books.

    They discovered Enron's BS before it became publicly known and every other BS company.

    They aren't "Haters". They are cold calculating bean counters and are not to be taken lightly like Musk did.

    I could go on.....but it 's gonna be a book.

    1. Re:The Shorts by 110010001000 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yeah right. The $35k is not available. Model 3s right now are $55K. The Nissal Leaf is $30k, actually availble. More Tesla lies.

  2. Re:These are business decisions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Every single time you enable autopilot it tells you to keep both hands on the wheel and be prepared to take control at any time. If you don't do that, it's your fault, not Tesla's.