Tesla Model S Driver killed while on AutoPilot

[mcglsr2]

In case you haven't heard: link to article

Personally, I am not a fan of the whole Auto Pilot thing. If you are supposed to keep your hands on the wheel, maintain control, and pay attention, then what's the point of Auto Pilot. To me, Auto Pilot means "I don't have to pay attention while driving." Too many people do that already, I don't like encouraging more to do it. It will be a loooooooong time before this guy uses Auto Pilot. Honestly, I don't even use Cruise Control.

I do feel for the guy though. That has got to suck. Just cruising along reading your book/posting on facebook/texting a friend and then you look up and Bam! You're dead.

 

[1998cobrasvt]

In case you haven't heard: link to article

Personally, I am not a fan of the whole Auto Pilot thing. If you are supposed to keep your hands on the wheel, maintain control, and pay attention, then what's the point of Auto Pilot. To me, Auto Pilot means "I don't have to pay attention while driving." Too many people do that already, I don't like encouraging more to do it. It will be a loooooooong time before this guy uses Auto Pilot. Honestly, I don't even use Cruise Control.

I do feel for the guy though. That has got to suck. Just cruising along reading your book/posting on facebook/texting a friend and then you look up and Bam! You're dead.

Wowww dang man thats aweful. I agree Tesla should have never offered the feature. Im 100% with you their, no auto pilot for me, and i RARELY use cruise control.

What scares me the most is they are trying to put this s*it on to tractor trailers and make them autonomous! No driver even in the cab! That 80,000 plus pound tank can EASILY hurt some one heaven forbid.. Its scary to think you can get run down by a haywire tanker with no driver..

 

[Austinx56]

..........and it happend in Florida, a course. sad

 

[Frank.JD.Perez]

florida is due to spontaneously combust sometime soon...

that or its about to separate from the us and fly into space

 

[Austinx56]

florida is due to spontaneously combust sometime soon...

that or its about to separate from the us and fly into space

yup, i work in alabama, moving there at the end of july, im only 45 mins away from it now, but people are very different in FL and AL

 

[Royal96]

I am generally opposed to the whole autonomous car bull as is. I'm surprised this is the first case of this happening, honestly.

 

[mcglsr2]

Yah, I am pretty much expecting Florida to crack off and sink into the sea any day now. And here I was, thinking Cali would go first. Shame on me.

Don't get me wrong, the auto piloted cars of Minority Report are certainly a rad concept. But real life is different. Even if you forget about the safety issue of bugs in Auto Pilot programming, consider malware. Cars are getting more and more connected. How soon until I can hack that Auto Pilot of the car next to me. What then? Antivirus for our cars? Pop-up ads on our dashboards? Not that we'll notice, of course, as our attention will be on anything but driving. Ugh. Cool concept. In practice, I just don't know. I feel like we are doing Auto Pilot just because we can, not because we should. And we all know what happened to Jurassic Park!!! lol

 

[g36 monkey]

As much as I love driving, I have always thought if we removed the human element behind transportation it would be much safer and faster. I feel like as it's perfected we will end up with vehicles driving themselves at 300mph like we see in the movies.

Of course that's just an idea.

However, until then I will continue to love driving!

 

[mcglsr2]

^Yah I think that would be the end goal. But that would mean, for it to work, humans would not be allowed to control anything, as they would introduce variables and potentially cause accidents. So while I love the idea of being able to get where I want super fast, I also love the idea of driving and fear the idea that one day I may not be "allowed" to drive anymore (being old and incapable of driving doesn't count). Of course, probably won't happen in my lifetime.

 

[BMAC96GT]

I'm highly against autopilot. We've come a long way in short time from a technology standpoint, but there is still a lot left to learn when you're forcing a car to react to a real world situation driving down the interstate. There's no way I would be able to relax in a Tesla while on auto-pilot. I feel like my hands would stay hovering over the steering wheel, and my foot hovering over the brake. I'm honestly surprised it doesn't happen more than it does

 

[ttocs]

even the automatic braking feature so many seem to be advertising gets me uneasy. Its only a matter of time before the system malfunctions and locks it up on the highway right in front of a semi.

 

[g36 monkey]

The way it would need to work is every vehicle would have this capability, and all of the vehicles communicate with each other to say "Ok, I am doing this now" so all the others can react to it.

As noted, it's definitely not going to be in our lifetime.

 

[ttocs]

idunno consider that these are operating in the 3d space and all communicating. But there are only 100

[video=youtube;KV5Jjd0ww5Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV5Jjd0ww5Q[/video]

 

[g36 monkey]

That's so awesome!

 

[Tally_4.6]

Honestly, I don't even use Cruise Control.

and i RARELY use cruise control.

Are you guys kidding...

 

[lutter94]

Are you guys kidding...

I don't use it very often either. If I set the cruise, it drops like 5 mph sometimes, gotta overshoot it lol. Kind of annoying, but haven't torn the drivers wheelwell out yet.....

 

[duh09]

The auto pilot features are still in beta testing and you have to go through a process to activate them in the new cars. The driver was very aware of how the system works and enjoyed it enough to make a few YouTube videos showing it off. I've been genuinely interested in how the stuff works since they first started talking about working towards autonomous cars from an engineering stand-point so I've been keeping up with this story. The features in these cars are not a 100% autonomous driver with 0 driver interaction. It's more or less a system that can judge and make basic decisions and avoid certains along with alerting the driver in case of a problem to take control.

Tragic loss, don't get me wrong, but no system with human interaction will ever be perfect, so the first was bound to happen eventually. I wouldn't dismiss the technology so quick considering these are literally the very beginnings of it. I will be MUCH happier with all the texting idiots on autopilot rather than slamming into me without it.

 

[lutter94]

Tragic loss, don't get me wrong, but no system will ever be perfect

Fixed. There aren't enough sensors in the world to pre-plan every possible scenario.

 

[1998cobrasvt]

Are you guys kidding...

Lol are you kidding tally? Did you care to ask why i dont use cruise control before making assumptions?

The reason i dont use cruise control is for one reason only. I ENJOY DRIVING. I trust the use of cruise control on my daily and on my cobra, But its rarely used because i enjoy driving.

 

[ianmcc]

Driver was apparently watching Harry Potter on a portable DVD player (since Tesla Motors Inc. said it is not possible to watch videos on the Model S touch screen.)
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/01/tesla-driver-killed-autopilot-self-driving-car-harry-potter