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A Sleeping Driver's Tesla Led Police On A 7-Minute Chase (sfchronicle.com)

"When a pair of California Highway Patrol officers pulled alongside a car cruising down Highway 101 in Redwood City before dawn Friday, they reported a shocking sight: a man fast asleep behind the wheel," reports the San Francisco Chronicle: The car was a Tesla, the man was a Los Altos planning commissioner, and the ensuing freeway stop turned into a complex, seven-minute operation in which the officers had to outsmart the vehicle's autopilot system because the driver was unresponsive, according to the CHP...

Officers observed Samek's gray Tesla Model S around 3:30 a.m. as it sped south at 70 mph on Highway 101 near Whipple Avenue, said Art Montiel, a CHP spokesman. When officers pulled up next to the car, they allegedly saw Samek asleep, but the car was moving straight, leading them to believe it was in autopilot mode. The officers slowed the car down after running a traffic break, with an officer behind Samek turning on emergency lights before driving across all lanes of the highway, in an S-shaped path, to slow traffic down behind the Tesla, Montiel said. He said another officer drove a patrol car directly in front of Samek before gradually slowing down, prompting the Tesla to slow down as well and eventually come to a stop in the middle of the highway, north of the Embarcadero exit in Palo Alto -- about 7 miles from where the stop was initiated.

Tesla declined to comment on the incident, but John Simpson, privacy/technology project director for Consumer Watchdog, calls this proof that Tesla has wrongly convinced drivers their cars' "autopilot" function really could perform fully autonomous driving...

"They've really unconscionably led people to believe, I think, that the car is far more capable of self-driving than actually is the case. That's a huge problem."

6 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. Re:BS story.. by whoever57 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    But besides subsidies, I think there's some emotional reason that they don't like Musk.

    Because the right-wing hate California with an irrational degree of passion.

    I'll leave it to others to explain why a right-wing rag might hate a state that is highly successful yet has mostly liberal policies.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  2. Re:Not Less Capable by ceoyoyo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So a Tesla on autopilot with a sleeping driver has a worst case scenario that's about the same as the best case for a regular car with sleeping driver?

  3. Re:And some idiot just yesterday INSISTED... by uldics · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If he vas elected, still no. And more so not if he was chosen for the job by HR, as this has nothing to do with his job. What you do in your free time, is none of your bosses business. But I wonder, how come the autopilot did not react on the tools police use - lights and sound, which is same as red light by autopilot understanding. I doubt Tesla just forgot such functionality when implementing traffic rules adherence.

  4. Re:And some idiot just yesterday INSISTED... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    What you do in your free time, is none of your bosses business.

    It is when you are breaking the law and endangering people, and especially if you are a government employee or contractor. What he did is absolutely indefensible.

  5. Re:Not Less Capable by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A better comparison would be other cars with level 2 automation. They all check that the driver it attentive in various ways, and take action if they think the driver is asleep.

    Some use IR cameras to check that the driver is paying attention to the road, for example.

    There is also the issue of what to do if the driver is asleep. Some make more noise or vibrate the wheel/seat. Some like Tesla just stop in the middle of the road, others keep going on the assumption that it's better not to park in the fast lane of the motorway.

    Basically all of them have limitations and none of them handle the driver asleep failure mode very well.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  6. Re:Not Less Capable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wrong.

    It doesn't matter what kind of scenario you set up, as long as the equipment and system works as intended and advertised, the operator is ALWAYS responsible for the machine he's operating.

    It's impossible to fall asleep because the car is doing the driving. That's an excuse, and a poor one at that. It's the operators responsibility to stay awake and fit to do his job, in this case driving the car. If he fails, the responsibility is his.

    In the case of c) the operator has fatally and gravely failed in judgment and operated the machine out of spec. It's not the fault of the manufacturer if anyone is stupid enough to think the machine can perform magic. It's, again, a poor excuse, unless Tesla specifically advertised their system as able to get you home dead drunk from where ever. Which they, AFAIK, never have.

    You are always responsible for your actions and choices. Trying to shift the blame to the manufacturer is lame.