Posted on 12/07/2019 11:49:47 AM PST by jazusamo
A Tesla on autopilot rear-ended a Connecticut troopers vehicle early Saturday as the driver was checking on his dog in the back seat, state police said.
Police said they had responded to a disabled vehicle that was stopped in the middle of Interstate 95. While waiting for a tow, the self-driving Tesla came down the road.
After striking the trooper's vehicle, the driver in the Tesla then rear-ended the disabled vehicle before stopping.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Ferdinand... who in all that’s holy names ther child ***FERDINAND***?
Do I still need to pay attention while using Autopilot?
Yes. Autopilot is a hands-on driver assistance system that is intended to be used only with a fully attentive driver. It does not turn a Tesla into a self-driving car nor does it make a car autonomous.
Before enabling Autopilot, you must agree to keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times and to always maintain control and responsibility for your car. Once engaged, if insufficient torque is applied, Autopilot will also deliver an escalating series of visual and audio warnings, reminding you to place your hands on the wheel if insufficient torque is applied. If you repeatedly ignore these warnings, you will be locked out from using Autopilot during that trip.
You can override any of Autopilots features at any time by steering, applying the brakes, or using the cruise control stalk to deactivate.
https://www.tesla.com/support/autopilot
That’s the definition of “bad day”.
The kid is destined for greatness! He'll probably grow up to be an archduke or something.
Yes, that is true. I should have clarified that I was referring to a 5 axle tractor trailer.
Strange, I thought these whizzbang things have all kinds of sensors and amazing computing abilities to see hazards and to stop safely.
Surely that should have worked HERE ????
From the start I have considered these self-driving vehicle a potential boon to accident lawsuit lawyers, and even if the (expensive) devices are greatly improved in the future they will still not be good enough (being complex, they also have to be expensively maintained or they DONT operate as specified).
The makers of these cars are setting themselves up for major class action lawsuits and will make many lawyers very rich - with the usual effect of pushing consumer insurance rates/costs higher to cover the cost of the legal middlemen’s bounty.
If car manufacturers build cars the way programmers build programs, first you would get the car frame then you have to come back to download the engine and then the tires and finally after about 4 downloads you could finally drive it.
This is from the Tesla user’s manual:
Yes. Autopilot is a hands-on driver assistance system that is intended to be used only with a fully attentive driver. It does not turn a Tesla into a self-driving car nor does it make a car autonomous.
In other words, it was the driver’s fault.
This is what will happen when “self-driving” cars become the norm. The person in the “driver’s” seat will not pay attention to the road situation and will rely on the autopilot. The autopilot will not handle every situation, and there will be accidents.
Or the dog, for that matter.
Gee, I always thought the fast lane was on the left, and the right lane was for the slower traffic, and I was born here.
No, liability issues will only be a hurdle.
We will adopt autonomous vehicles far sooner than most expect. There are too many advantages to the technology; fewer accidents, the end of car ownership, convenience, lower transportation cost, fewer cars on the road, the end of parking problems, etc. What difference does it make if a car charges itself 20 miles from your house? It is inevitable. The insurance industry will adapt, if it survives.
Google has 8,000,000 safe miles of data collection to use in its machine learning. And now they have enough "grounded" road data to build simulators to train the AI. That's when things really speed up.
The technology has already surpassed these forecasts. The advances/cost of machine learning are on a logarithmic curve, like Moore's law.
We are in for some incredible times, coming soon. Change accelerates.
“It is in their best interest(insurance companies) to state that their coverage is void if auto pilot is engaged.”
very surprised they haven’t already done it ...
i noticed that tesla has gone into the business of selling auto insurance for their own cars ... i don’t know if that’s because conventional insurance is exorbitant and/or not easily available ...
I dunno about Ferdinand but i had a work buddy named Fernando. He called himself Ferd and was one of the most likeable fellas you might meet.
Insurance companies look for fault. Insuring their own vehicles helps keep certain information about accidents secret.
And the Teslas are very limited in their autopilot capability. They're far from autonomous. This guy was asking for trouble.
Ruh roh!
Is there no collision avoidance tech on Teslas?
Not the first time. These vehicles have rear ended several cop cars not to mention running over people etc...
If one should ever slam into you, be sure to file a lawsuit against the state where the collision occurred for allowing this company to use their highways and people on them as test subjects.
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