Posted on 02/25/2020 3:27:03 PM PST by BenLurkin
The National Transportation Safety Board says the driver of a Tesla SUV who died in a Silicon Valley crash two years ago was playing a video game on his smartphone at the time.
Chairman Robert Sumwalt said at the start of a hearing Tuesday that partially automated driving systems like Tesla’s Autopilot cannot drive themselves. Yet he says drivers continue to use them without paying attention. He says the board made recommendations to six automakers in 2017 to stop the problem and only Tesla has failed to respond.
The board will determine a cause of the crash at the hearing and make recommendations to prevent it from happening again.
Sumwalt says government regulators have ignored the board’s previous recommendations for measures to prevent these crashes.
The March 2018 crash involving a Tesla Model X SUV killed Apple engineer Walter Huang when it swerved and slammed into a concrete barrier dividing freeway and exit lanes.
Just before the crash, the Tesla steered to the left into a paved area between the freeway travel lanes and an exit ramp, the NTSB said. It crashed into the end of the concrete barrier. The car’s forward collision didn’t alert Huang, and its automatic emergency braking did not activate, the NTSB said.
Also, Huang did not brake, and there was no steering movement detected to avoid the crash, the board’s staff said.
NTSB investigators previously found that Tesla’s system became confused at a freeway exit and was a factor in the crash.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
Pole Position?
I’ll admit to being ignorant of how these cars are supposed to work. Under what circumstances does the car drive itself, and when does the driver need to be ready to take over? It seems that if the car is just rolling along by itself without any problems, it would be natural for the driver’s attention eventually to lapse, or for the driver to seek diversions or to fall asleep. When the driver needs to take over, he isn’t engaged enough to react in time.
I like driving and prefer to do it myself.
No self respecting person calls it “Cali ‘
“It took 2 years to figure that out?”
No.
If it was “Escape from Tarkov” I understand.
None of the current cars are level 4/5 autonomous driving yet, they’re level 2or3 and people are treating them like they’re 4or5 and crashing. Level 2/3 requires the drivers attention and readiness to react.
Stupidity has it’s rewards.
Just honk your horn long and hard and watch the fun begin.
I wonder why?
Got it.
Why is Tesla or any other auto maker allowed to call driver assist “auto pilot”? It is in no way an auto pilot.
I for one am not going to be a beta tester when my life is at risk.
Geez, people are soooo stupid.
“and when does the driver need to be ready to take over? “
Driver is required to maintain control at all times.
I was born and raised in Cali, as was my mom in the ‘30’s, and I’ve always called it Cali.
Ed
I'll be interested to hear about how AI control handles a snowy day... Note that they do all their testing where it NEVER snows...
Only the federal government is competent to drive your car.
“He says the board made recommendations to six automakers in 2017 to stop the problem and only Tesla has failed to respond.”
What recommendations did they make and How did the others respond?
...
Good question. I also wonder if Tesla took some other action that they thought was better.
There are a lot more Teslas on the road now, but I don’t see more stories like this one. If anything, I see less.
So true!
And to think the Fed Govt. makes the pharma companies test for years before releasing a drug, but allowing a car company to put 2000LBs of steel, Flying down the road controlled by sketchy software is just fine.
“It is in no way an auto pilot.”
They said on the news that the drivers of these cars are supposed to keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times and if they remove their hands the car will warn and stop or something like that.
Sounds like that hasn’t been made clear to some drivers. If they had a video of this car swerving and crashing into the concrete barrier when the driver failed to be in control, they could show it to people who just bought themselves a “driverless” car.
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