How Safe Is Tesla Autopilot?

Re:How Safe Is Tesla Autopilot? by vkou on Monday September 19, 2016 @02:14PM (#12533431)

And yet, we have Elon Musk saying that half a million people would have been saved by autopilot, if it were rolled out universally. [1] This doesn't sound like he's pitching a 'maintain speed and heading' device.

So, can we rely on it to make the right decision in a safety-critical situation, or not? (The answer to this question seems to be 'yes, until there's an accident.')

[1] https://electrek.co/2016/07/05/elon-musk-tesla-autopilot-sav...

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Re:How Safe Is Tesla Autopilot? by FireBeyond on Monday September 19, 2016 @02:50PM (#12533743)

Right, exactly. This is the same with their auto park / summon systems that can't tell whether they're plowing through a half-open garage door.

All shiny and glittery world: "Press a button, walk inside, while car is putting itself away for you!" "Press a button as you walk out the front door and the car will pull up in front of you!" "Half a million lives could be saved by using our ever-so-safe autopilot system!"

Cold reality, faced with liability and lawsuits: "Your fault. You didn't stand there and supervise the whole process!" "Your fault, it's not an autopilot that lets you not be in control of the vehicle, despite allowing you to go up to 15 minutes without touching the steering wheel" "Your fault, you hit the brakes with insufficient time to stop the vehicle before a collision. The vehicle wasn't under autopilot control at the time of the collision, so it doesn't count. The fact that you only hit the brakes because the vehicle was about to happily collide at speed is ... entirely ... separate, and unrelated!"

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