Posted on 05/25/2026 5:36:58 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Today I had the experience of driving for an extended period behind a Tesla. One of my daughters was with me. We were in a rural area of upstate New York, on a two-lane road with enough curves and oncoming traffic that there were few opportunities to pass. So we were behind this car for about 20 miles. We took the opportunity to observe some things about how the new world works.
Living in Manhattan, we don’t go out for extended drives in the country all that often. Maybe most readers here drive much more than I do and have had experiences like the one I am about to describe. But this was new to me.
The Tesla that we were following was a white sedan. We didn’t get a photo, but the car looked very much like the one in this picture below (the difference being that the picture appears to have been taken in Queens, but we were in a rural area upstate):
In upstate New York, there is a general speed limit of 55 mph where no other limit is specified. And thus 55 was the speed limit for most of our time on this road. As all normal people know, at least in this area, 55 does not really mean 55. The most common speed of traffic on this road is between 60 and 65, and you will not get a ticket even up to 70. But this Tesla was going exactly 55. Not 56 or 54, but 55.
Then we approached an area with some population and businesses. Heading into that area, the speed limit dropped to 45, although the speed limit sign came several hundred yards before the buildings. Right at the sign, the Tesla slowed down to precisely 45. That’s when my daughter remarked that this car had to be operating in self-driving mode.
Sure enough, right where the speed limit ended, the Tesla went back to exactly 55.
Several miles further on came a zone with a speed limit of 35. The same principles were applied: the car slowed down to exactly 35 at the first speed limit sign, continued at exactly 35 through the zone, and went back to exactly 55 immediately after the zone. Then, after a stretch at 55, there was another short 45 mph zone. Once more, it was the same drill.
Then, back at 55, we could see in the distance a school bus approaching from the opposite direction. Several hundred yards ahead, it stopped. Its red lights began flashing. A “STOP” sign swung out on its driver’s side toward our lane of traffic. Its door opened. There was plenty of time for cars going our direction to stop.
This happened too fast for us to get a picture, but here is a representative image of a school bus looking pretty much like that one, stopped, lights flashing, “STOP” sign perpendicular, and door open:
A couple of little kids came out the door.
And then the Tesla blew by at full speed!
Oops. I guess they haven’t programmed the school bus thing into the operating system just yet. Fortunately the kids weren’t trying to cross the highway at that moment.
By the time the kids had disembarked and the school bus had turned off its flashing lights, the Tesla was far ahead of us. But a few miles further on, we had caught back up, and we soon came to a place where the highway passes an ultra-high-end gated golf community. (For a time, Tom Brady and then-wife Gisele were the most famous owners there.). To our total lack of surprise, the Tesla turned in.
I suppose that the issue of failing to stop for a school bus can be seen as a software glitch that can be easily corrected. Probably, that issue will be corrected in the next update. Maybe it has already been corrected and this particular car just didn’t have the update.
But how about the more general and important issue that this self-driving car mechanically followed rules to the letter without exercising any judgment or considering trade-offs. Can that be corrected? Many may actually not even consider that to be a problem. Shouldn’t everybody obey all rules and regulations, even the most minute and picayune, to the letter?
I consider myself lucky that I am old enough that I don’t have to adapt (much) to the oncoming world of AI and self-driving cars and robots and the like. Young people today are not so lucky.
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Soon we will have no one who can drive on their own.
I do not own a Tesla, but they call it “Full Self Driving SUPERVISED”.
Do they still have Driver’s Ed in high school?
I took it to get the insurance discount.
Already had my DL.
“And then the Tesla blew by at full speed!“
The owner will be getting a ticket in the mail . School busses video violations now. The driver could have hit the brakes.
My car calls it “driver assist” (the idea being that it shouldn’t be counted on to drive itself). I disabled all of that mess as soon as I bought it.
Low down dirty dog stuff, at this late date, not stopping dead in the street for the kids getting on or off a school bus.
It stinks to have to sit around when you’ve got places to go, but living in society has certain trade-offs and limitations.
For a self-driving Tesla to fail to detect a stopped school bus on the other side of the road is bad, bad juju.
Having peons know how to drive is dangerous. Next they might start thinking for themselves.
And posted speed limits are for normal conditions, not raining/snowing/windy, etc.
You CAN get ticketed for speeding even while going the speed limit if the weather is bad enough.
And what happens in construction zones?
True, assuming the driver in the Tesla wasnt asleep while it was self driving.
Being able to drive a manual transmission is now a lost art. Almost all my cars were stick shift not to mention my motorcycles.
“ Soon we will have no one who can drive on their own.”
From antics observed on my most recent excursion, I’d say we are well along that path.
What happens when the car’s AI is confronted with a split second decision making moment, and it must choose between steering in a manner qhich will injure or kill you. The solo driver or injure or kill multiple others in a 2 vehicle collision? Does it balance to potential losses and decide? Are there 3 laws of robotics operating here?
Thump Thump !
What was that Elon?
” That was X”
What you’re describing is bureaucratic lawyer mindset. As any low level functionary inside a bureaucratic organization will tell you, if you follow the rules with insane attention to detail, you can’t get in trouble. You can’t be blamed for anything.
Asking for software to use judgement is asking it to be sentient. No matter how well AI can fake an interaction and seem human, it can’t exercise judgment and no designer who doesn’t want a prison sentence or a career ending legal judgment would code anything like “judgment” into his software.
And whether or not you get a ticket for six miles per hour over the speed limit is a matter of the officer’s “judgement.” (Oh, and how far off he is from meeting his quota. I know they claim not to have quotas, but a high-ranking Florida Highway Patrol officer was fired for sending out a general email telling the ranks to meet their quota. Someone forwarded it to a reporter.)
I heard that is the way to theft-proof your car-to have a manual transmission.
Sounds good, but today's emotionally incontinent young thieves would just set the car on fire in frustration!
Seems to me the author needs a little more HP in the vehicle if he/she was stuck behind the Tesla for 20 miles..
That's not a glitch: it's a MAJOR failure, if accurate (we are left to assume there's no mitigating circumstances involving the roadway architecture).
The consequences here? Killing children -- a 'bug' like that should generate a full-blown recall.
Yup. Funny story: my daughter’s girlfriend caught a thief on video trying to steal her Mustang with a stick. He couldn’t back it out of the parking spot. Too funny.
This reminds me of a great self-deprecating humorous rant I read decades ago in the Village Voice.
The writer, a denizen of Manhattan, was trying to get people to subscribe to the Voice by appealing to their sense of elitism and snobbery, saying that only THEY knew what “good” was.
This innate sense of Truth, only possessed by Gotham residents, was furthered by their living on “a tropical island off the coast of America.”
I am sure Mr. Mention means well, but he needs to get off that island more often.
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