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Tesla Autopilot Safety Defeat Device Gets a Cease-and-Desist From NHTSA (autoblog.com)
schwit1 writes: The National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) is cracking down on a device that was designed to trick Tesla's semi-autonomous Autopilot feature into thinking a driver is paying attention, in order to extend the amount of time that it will operate without anyone touching the steering wheel. NHTSA announced on Tuesday that it has sent a cease and desist letter to the makers of Autopilot Buddy, and has given the company until June 29 to end sales and distribution of the $199 product.
The device is a two-piece weighted hoop with magnets that wraps around a steering wheel spoke and registers with the car's sensors as a hand on the wheel. Autopilot is programmed to disengage after a short period of time if the driver is not touching the wheel and ignores a series of alerts to take control.unity.
The device is a two-piece weighted hoop with magnets that wraps around a steering wheel spoke and registers with the car's sensors as a hand on the wheel. Autopilot is programmed to disengage after a short period of time if the driver is not touching the wheel and ignores a series of alerts to take control.unity.
...companion cube.
They should be able to sell it, as long as they're willing to pay for the damages in any accident associated with its use. Bet it would be pulled very quickly...
Try to make something fool proof and the universe will make a better fool.
Because anyone that would pay $200 for a small magnet in a piece of plastic is too stupid to be trusted to drive themselves.
This makes sense to me. It seems that communities (cities or states or whatever) seem to think they have the ability to determine whether self-driving vehicles are allowed on their streets. (This is not something I had thought about until the last couple of years.) Given that, the same governments should be allowed to determine if the sale of a device that turns a vehicle into a self-driving vehicle is allowed.
They should be halting sales of any device's safety devices that can be defeated by this device. Is that enough devices?
This seems completely ironic to me. All this device does is stop the warning to put the drivers hands on the wheel. It does not make Autopilot safer or any less safe. Nor is there any way to determine whether a person is using Autopilot properly without one of these devices. Prohibiting these products seems to be a band-aid solution, when the real problem is that Autopilot is so easily misused in the first place.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
If you watch the Youtube video its just a weight held by magnets. I can wrap rubber bands around the steering wheel and it would accomplish the same thing. Might as well send a cease and desist to Youtube for showing how to circumvent the system. And if I tell my friends how to do it, will I get a cease and desist letter too?
What if it just pulls over to the side of the road and stops instead. The driver might be asleep or dead. Just disengaging could cause an accident.
This sounds like the Companion Cube's misdirection.
There's no talk about that device being involved the current high profile investigation. It probably was not present but they are doing that now to divert attention.
Better than having a dead guy driving around town until his battery runs out.
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What happened to SongCue?
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Its bad enough that "autopilot" lets the driver take their hands off the wheel for up to 30 seconds. But using a device to defeat even that amount of time is just plain stupid.
Not that much, but a skinny one with big tits and a pretty face will cost you. Double if it has a nice dick, too.
The sooner the people who think it's safe to not pay attention while driving are taken off the road the better.
If that happens because their Tesla autopilot drives out the lane, speeds up and crashes into a safety barrier while still accelerating, so be it.
That's because autopilot isn't paying attention to the road either.
Have you noticed how Elon Musk had stopped tweeting about how safe autopilot is? That's because more people die in a Tesla when it's turned on then when it's turned off.
As a safety measure it seems somewhat inadequate, but at least there is the possibility of the vehicle being slowed by regenerative braking in the case where autopilot is simply disabled. To make a fair comparison, you should contrast it with what happens when a driver becomes incapacitated while using other systems. If they are using cruise control, their vehicle becomes an unguided land missile, doing its best to maintain speed and that's it. With radar-guided cruise control, the vehicle will slow down and maybe even stop to avoid impact, but it will do nothing to avoid running drivers alongside off of the road, nor drifting into an oncoming lane. It's not until you get up to more complex solutions like super cruise before you find a safer situation than simply shutting off the system.
With that said, it does seem like when the system shuts off, it should continue lane keeping and automatic braking, and simply disable acceleration - activating the hazards and coming to a gradual halt. Beginning deceleration slowly will give a driver who is not fully incapacitated a chance to regain control of the vehicle.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
There's an urban legend in the making. Self driving car pulls in at its destination, no-one gets out.
"Why isn't grandpa getting of the car, Mommy?"
Turns out grandpa died 6 hours ago, just after he set out.
He died before he set out and placed in the Tesla, set on autopilot and the evidence was destroyed in a fiery crash... :)
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