Posted on 02/11/2020 12:46:20 PM PST by BenLurkin
An Apple engineer who died when his Tesla Model X hit a concrete barrier on a Silicon Valley freeway had complained before his death that the SUV’s Autopilot system would malfunction in the area where the crash happened.
The documents say Huang told his wife that Autopilot had previously veered his SUV toward the same barrier on U.S. 101 near Mountain View, California where he later crashed. Huang died at a hospital from his injuries. “Walter said the car would veer toward the barrier in the mornings when he went to work,” the Huang family’s attorney wrote in a response to NTSB questions.
Huang also described Autopilot’s malfunctioning to his brother, the attorney wrote, in addition to talking with a friend who owns a Model X. Huang, a software engineer, discussed with the friend how a patch to the Autopilot software affected its performance and made the Model X veer, the lawyer’s response said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
Drivers of Teslas deserve Darwin awards!
Why did he keep using it then?
21st century man. He had it all. Not so much now though.
Who would have thought that turning your life over to a set of rules some engineers wrote in a room somewhere wasn’t a good idea?
“Doctor, my arm hurts every time I do this....”
An Apple Engineer? I would presume he should have been aware of the limitations of software and been more skeptical. I would never rely on autopilot...
Exactly!
Ping.
That location is a tricky freeway intersection with lots of cross traffic and commuter traffic
No one should ever use Auto pilot in that area
Maybe to set up a suicide to look like an accident for insurance purposes?
Sky net..........................
Complained but continued using it.
I had the same question - perhaps he had a life insurance policy?
He's an engineer!
He’s a Californian - the laws of nature don’t apply to them, so they think.
Sounds like a cruise ship self steering itself to a port full of the coronavirus.
Good God. That was my first thought as well.
I have to embarrassingly admit, I purchased a new vehicle recently that had all this collision avoidance, lane change warnings, all that, but...when I researched the vehicle and went for a test drive I didn’t even think about those things. I just assumed you could turn them off if you didn’t want to use them, no big deal.
On the way home from the dealer after I picked up the car, when I stopped at a traffic light, the engine stopped running. (It had that feature that shuts off the engine automatically when not moving) I didn’t notice, because I had been driving a noisy car, and this one was quite quiet in comparison.
Then when I took my foot off the brake, it started up and I felt the vibration as it started up and thought “What the hell was that?”
That was my introduction to the heretofore unknown “features” on the car. That one wasn’t so bad, because I COULD disable that one persistently.
However, while the lane change warning and the collision avoidance can also be turned off, the collision avoidance can only be turned off for the duration of a journey. Restarting the engine re-enables it, and that is a feature, not a bug, apparently.
I despise it with a white hot burning passion.
Having that thing constantly beeping at me while I drive to and from work is annoying enough to the point turn up my audiobooks loud enough to drown it out, but it is when it brakes automatically for me that makes my hackles go up. When a car is stopped in the middle of the road to take a left hand turn and I try to go around it, it jams on the brakes! Now, I expect it and just overpower it with more gas, but it irritates me to no end. I think it is damn dangerous.
I know people think it is great if you are texting or talking on your cell phone and are distracted all the time, they think they NEED something like that. I have my eyes and attention on the road ALL the time and don’t use my phone while driving, and this is just annoying.
I will say, though...I really DO like the adaptive cruise control. THAT is a great feature on crowded highways in long distance driving. All the rest of that crap sucks.
Exactly!
Woz once said to never trust a computer you couldn’t throw out of a window ... and a robotic car is exactly that!
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