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 ...
Don’t these ‘issues’ put other lives in danger too?
True, but you can educate it!
” I’ve heard the battery, alone, is a fortune to replace.”
I’ve heard you save a fortune in fuel and maintenance!
Interesting. So Asians drive like idiots even when they’re not driving. :-P
Yep!
“Records from an iPhone recovered from the crash site showed that Huang may have been using it before the accident. Records obtained from AT&T showed that data had been used while the vehicle was in motion, but the source of the transmissions couldn’t be determined, the NTSB wrote. One transmission was less than a minute before the crash.”
So the autopilot is great, provided you stay awake and alert, you avoid distractions, you are sober, and ready to react to things in an instant.
Remind me again of the reason you need an autopilot?
But on the bright side, the car didn’t burst into flames. NO gasoline!
“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?”
That’s almost like a metaphor for our relationship with government also.
Is there nobody named Huang in the county where you herd your sheep?
“As an engineer I agree that there is a certain satisfaction in finding a bug and being able to reproduce it.”
Could not duplicate the problem is very annoying. At least he died happy!
Education.
Ah, for science!
“can only be turned off for the duration of a journey”
Used to be, probably at worst you’d need to go under the hood and unscrew something or clip a wire to disable it, but now it’s probably all coded into the computer. Though you could get fancy and try swapping out the computer with one from a different model, I knew a mechanic who put a Camaro chip in his Chevy pickup and it worked, but that was 15 years ago...
“Remind me again of the reason you need an autopilot?”
Reduce fatigue.
Yes. I am faithful about using the turn signals. I make darn sure I turn my head all the way, too, and I crane and look in the mirror from several angles to get the blind spots.
This “feature” in the car sees the road (apparently) and sees the lines, and determines if you are crossing them or about to.
Even if you haven’t crossed them, if it “thinks” you might, it beeps at you.
Sigh. A 2019 Subaru Forester. Love the vehicle and handling, just not this electronic crap! It is what they call their “EyeSight” system.
Why did he keep using it then?
He’s an engineer!
= = =
A real engineer would have argued with it, and NOT used it.
I used to own an MG Midget back in the day (Lucas: The Father of Darkness) so I learned all about cars on that, and my nephews learned all they know about cussing from watching me work on it.
Since I moved up in the job force, I have not had much desire to work on cars anymore. I was a jet mechanic in the USN, and years ago, when I could finally buy a car that was reliable, I haven’t done more than an oil change myself.
I hated working on cars then, because you had to have the car you drove running. Being out there in all kinds of crappy weather...I probably would enjoy working on or restoring a car now, but only if I can get one from the Sixties or earlier...:)
Getting older has had that effect on me!
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results."
-- Albert Einstein
This guy was an engineer so maybe you CAN’T educate it!! I find that people with Degrees upon Degrees are more stupid than most, not a lick of common sense which I find far more important in life!!!
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