And why are Tesla burning karma by promoting this technology?
For SpaceX, self-landing rockets are a direct method of reducing costs.
For Tesla, sort-of-self-driving cars are a distraction from the core product and are tainting the brand. Stick to selling top-tier electric vehicles with human-driving, people will still buy them on merit.
To me it's am example of what happens when software developers run the asylum. You can do nearly anything in software, but should you?
Except if the rumors about turnover in the Tesla software team are true, the exact opposite is the case. The hot goss is that they're under pressure to meet unrealistic goals, not vomiting their own hubris into the product.
What has lead you to this conclusion? Autopilot is really just advanced cruise control. You can treat it the exact same way by leaving your foot on the brake and leaving a hand on the wheel. If people aren't using it that way, that is certainly something Tesla should try to fix. But I am just not sure I buy the argument that cruise control is inherently a safer technology than cruise control plus auto steering.
But it isn't fully assisted and doesn't completely remove the need for interaction. It just is another step forward from cruise control that is more assisted and requires less interaction. I am not sure why everyone assumes the sweet spot for driver assistance ends immediately after adaptive cruise control and before cruise control plus lane keeping.
>Your brain will stop spending power on backseat driving
That is an interesting phrase to use considering backseat drivers have zero responsibility or control of a car but still manage to pay attention.
Your characterization of autopilot as “just cruise control” is fundamentally incorrect. Mere cruise control still demands significant and continuous attention and manual control on your behalf (steering). Autosteer makes the leap to fully automatic, which opens the door to not paying attention for long stretches of time.
From a practical perspective, Autopilot still needs to be monitored. But more relevant to this discussion, the user still needs to interact with the car to keep Autopilot engaged. It is possible to do that while paying very little attention. It is also possible to drive a car with cruise control while paying very little attention. Both systems can be abused. I have already said Tesla should do a better job of trying to crack down on the abuse of Autopilot. But I don't know why it is controversial to say that if used properly both systems can lead to greater safety by allowing the driver to focus on other aspects of driving.
You're just trying to make them sound similar, e.g. "if used properly" or "both can be abused". But there is an ocean of difference. It is vastly easier to ignore a system that is capable of driverless operation for long periods of time.
A good start would be to not call it auto pilot, and rename it to cruise control plus or whatever.
No doubt collision avoidance is a fantastic feature though.
Addendum: Looks likes the NHTSA has disavowed Tesla’s interpretation of that study. They did not evaluate whether autosteer (autopilot) was engaged.[1]
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/02/effectiveness-of-tesla-autop...
Wow. This is a story in its own, because that statistics has been touted a million time by the tesla/elon apologists..
Furthermore, no one is forcing anyone to buy Teslas. People should be free to do as they choose. I have no doubt, for example, that a corvette, lambo, m3, or convertible all increase certain risks for their drivers by far more than autopilot - which probably decreases their risks.
Indeed. When reading Tesla's statement,
"The Palo Alto-based automaker, led by Elon Musk, has said it repeatedly warns drivers to stay alert, keep their hands on the wheel and maintain control of their vehicle at all times while using the Autopilot system."
...one can't help but think, "then WTF is it good for, if I still have to drive the car myself while using it?"
Supervising autopilot to the degree required to correct sudden mistakes seems, to me, to be probably very close to the mental load of the details of steering yourself.
I'd say the mental load is higher than manually driving --- not unlike being a driving instructor to a student driver who is OK most of the time but occasionally makes a possibly fatal mistake that you need to watch out for and quickly correct. Normally, a car will go in a straight line with no steering input, but the autopilot almost "has a mind of its own" and can steer itself in the wrong direction.
This is subtly different from cruise control, which lets you concentrate on steering and rest your foot on the brake so you can use it quickly if needed. Cruise control doesn't encourage lowering attention, but enhances it.