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Tesla Model S Auto-Pilot fatality


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It appears the first fatality from a driverless car occured in May & the investigation has found flaws in the technology

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36680043

 

Tesla were doing remarkably brisk business, but shares are down today,

 

Wondering if forces opposed to Driverless Technology are going to take advantage & to try and kill it off.

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Yeah read this today. I don't think it will kill it off, as they argue it saves more lives than the other way around. But it shows that technology is and never will be 100% fail safe and it should never be assumed so. What would have been of more concern for me in this situation is if the other driver had died, that someone who was not using the tech was killed by it, then it becomes manslaughter I would have thought?

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As above, they will never really 100% fail safe them but will get better due to lessons learnt but at cost of few (many) lives. I like driving hence don't think I'll ever use them but would be a great tool to avoid collision or fallen asleep.

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This is the accident diagram from the police

27980108726_89f1c0e310_z_d.jpg

 

Its all speculation what happened, maybe the driver wasn't paying attention because they assumed autopilot would 'see' the turning lorry (which it didn't) and brake. Maybe the lorry driver turned at the last minute. Even if Autopilot didn't brake why didn't the driver brake, or did they realise too late what was going on?? No one knows yet.

 

The sad thing is the same driver posted a YouTube video of his car avoiding a crash with lorry a few weeks ago.

 

Regardless of what happened I see Autopilot as a very much a reactive system, which is OK for emergency situations but most of the time when we are driving we are anticipating what other road users might do, this is something Autopilot cannot do, and will never be able to do till AI systems start using 'fuzzy logic'.

 

I haven't ordered Autopilot on my Model S order and I doubt I'll ever activate it. Blind spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, and emergency braking is more than enough autonomy for me.

Edited by gangzoom
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Strikes trailer and goes under, strikes two fences, strikes pole......sounds to me like the the throttle was stuck on.

 

I really dont see the point of autopilot if your going to have to use your own reactions, you might as well be driving in the first place and it certainly doesnt seem emergency braking was working either.

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Strikes trailer and goes under, strikes two fences, strikes pole......sounds to me like the the throttle was stuck on.

 

I really dont see the point of autopilot if your going to have to use your own reactions, you might as well be driving in the first place and it certainly doesnt seem emergency braking was working either.

 

Rumours the driver was fully distracted at the time so probably didn't see the truck at all, they had essentially put their life in the hands of some very immature software. Autopilot didn't see it either due to a mixture of lighting conditions and the fact American trailers are 'empty' at passengers car level. So I suspect the crash happened at full speed with no braking at all, and therefore the sad outcome.

 

As far as am concerned Autopilot has been used by Tesla as a massive sales pitch, and its certainly done the job, in reality its no more advanced than the hardware in my wife's Lexus, expect Tesla are pushing the software implementation much more. The hardware was never designed to be used in the way some Tesla drivers are, ie:fully autonomy.

 

I'm most certainly not buying a Model S because of Autopilot. If Tesla gave me the option to delete the hardware in return for a cheaper list price I would galdly take them up on that option.

Edited by gangzoom
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Has anyone analysed how many deaths have been avoided by having autopilot yet?

 

If the run rate for fatalities in standard cars is 1 in 250,000 over a certain period for example (made up), even with this fatality are Tesla's still proving to be safer than standard cars?

 

...if that's the case though i don't know how i feel about it. I'd rather take my chances of a higher mortality rate with me in control, than a lower mortality rate but a computer is in control.

Edited by marzman
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I'm of the same opinion. I could understand the benefit of an autopilot function on long trips, but considering the Tesla has a range of merely 370km (assuming you'll travel a maximum of 185km each way on your trip), there's no real point to it as that is only a 1.5 hour ride each way roughly.

 

I personally take way too much pleasure from driving myself, instead of trusting some software developed by people I do not know.

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I'm of the same opinion. I could understand the benefit of an autopilot function on long trips, but considering the Tesla has a range of merely 370km (assuming you'll travel a maximum of 185km each way on your trip), there's no real point to it as that is only a 1.5 hour ride each way roughly.

 

I personally take way too much pleasure from driving myself, instead of trusting some software developed by people I do not know.

That's what "cruise control" is for. ;)

 

Honestly can't see why you'd realistically need to or want to take your hands away from the wheel or eyes off the road.

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I'm of the same opinion. I could understand the benefit of an autopilot function on long trips, but considering the Tesla has a range of merely 370km (assuming you'll travel a maximum of 185km each way on your trip), there's no real point to it as that is only a 1.5 hour ride each way roughly.

 

I personally take way too much pleasure from driving myself, instead of trusting some software developed by people I do not know.

That's what "cruise control" is for. ;)

 

Honestly can't see why you'd realistically need to or want to take your hands away from the wheel or eyes off the road.

 

Yeah, I know... I am still of the opinion that using cruise control is lazy (although it does come in handy). Taking my hands off the wheel would be completely out the question if I had autopilot. I am always cautious when technology has my life in its hands, but trusting this software to react for me while travelling at 70mph is a big no-no for me.

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Yeah, I know... I am still of the opinion that using cruise control is lazy (although it does come in handy). Taking my hands off the wheel would be completely out the question if I had autopilot. I am always cautious when technology has my life in its hands, but trusting this software to react for me while travelling at 70mph is a big no-no for me.

I've only had the need to use cruise control on a couple of cars I've owned whilst doing 2-3 hour long motorway trips which tbh I was glad of at times as it allowed me to move my legs away from the pedals to get some blood circulating.

 

Like you though I can't imagine actually putting my faith in the technology to stop the vehicle or steer the vehicle around traffic or in an emergency. Just think it's one step a little too far.

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Yeah, I know... I am still of the opinion that using cruise control is lazy (although it does come in handy). Taking my hands off the wheel would be completely out the question if I had autopilot. I am always cautious when technology has my life in its hands, but trusting this software to react for me while travelling at 70mph is a big no-no for me.

I've only had the need to use cruise control on a couple of cars I've owned whilst doing 2-3 hour long motorway trips which tbh I was glad of at times as it allowed me to move my legs away from the pedals to get some blood circulating.

 

Like you though I can't imagine actually putting my faith in the technology to stop the vehicle or steer the vehicle around traffic or in an emergency. Just think it's one step a little too far.

 

I know! I regularly do 4-9 hour trips to the UK... even one drive I did was 25 hours non-stop from Luxembourg to Lisbon. I can safely say, cruise control was very very handy!

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I know! I regularly do 4-9 hour trips to the UK... even one drive I did was 25 hours non-stop from Luxembourg to Lisbon. I can safely say, cruise control was very very handy!

Did you enter some type of European Cannonball run or something?! :surrender: 25 Hours non stop!! :scare:

 

I don't want to know what you did about going to the bathroom. :lol::D

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I know! I regularly do 4-9 hour trips to the UK... even one drive I did was 25 hours non-stop from Luxembourg to Lisbon. I can safely say, cruise control was very very handy!

Did you enter some type of European Cannonball run or something?! :surrender: 25 Hours non stop!! :scare:

 

I don't want to know what you did about going to the bathroom. :lol::D

 

The bathroom.... I cut a hole in the footwell! ;)

 

Nah, just fancied a holiday and was chasing some sunshine! haha. Of course I stopped for coffees a fuel!

 

Wouldn't mind doing something like that in a convoy of zeds next time though! :thumbs:

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I've some friends that are terrible drivers and are just an accident waiting to happen. I would feel much safer if they have autopilot cars.

 

I recall having 3 accidents within a timespan of 30 mins in a women car. She kept doing emergency brake and hitting the car infront. And she has been driving for a long time.

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I've some friends that are terrible drivers and are just an accident waiting to happen. I would feel much safer if they have autopilot cars.

 

I recall having 3 accidents within a timespan of 30 mins in a women car. She kept doing emergency brake and hitting the car infront. And she has been driving for a long time.

 

Sounds like they need a car with collision avoidance rather than autopilot.......or public transport B)

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Saw this video a short while ago of someone who appears to be asleep while driving with autopilot on :scare:

 

Summary: People (Including ones that can afford a $75k car) = Idiots.

 

Money doesn't buy sense!

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Saw this video a short while ago of someone who appears to be asleep while driving with autopilot on :scare:

 

Summary: People (Including ones that can afford a $75k car) = Idiots.

 

Money doesn't buy sense!

 

Or taste ;)

 

I know... just think how many Zeds he could've bought instead!

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