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Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by outlace on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @06:02PM (#33350181)
A bit tangential but I just got a Tesla Model 3 and paid $6,000 extra for “enhanced autopilot” buying into all the marketing about it, and its one of the biggest regrets of my life and makes me unable to appreciate an otherwise great car. I just feel sick about it. The enhanced autopilot is buggy and doesn’t save me any effort. The summon and auto park don’t really work. I think it’s a scam. Other than that it’s a great car.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by rockinghigh on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @06:37PM (#33350551)
In my experience (Model 3 and Y), Basic Autopilot works very well on highways and is easier to use than the competition. However, enhanced autopilot and full self-driving do not provide benefits and are still unsafe outside freeways. They are used by Tesla to increase margins and hype their brand as innovative.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by TaylorAlexander on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @09:28PM (#33351877)
> They are used by Tesla to increase margins and hype their brand as innovative.

Well, and legitimately they are used for data collection to improve the system. This is integral to how they develop FSD.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by tristanb on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @06:20PM (#33350378)
Interesting - we have it on our first car, love it, and just paid for it a second time on our second car. We regularly make 3-5hr trips with it driving. Maybe something is wrong with yours?
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by LastTrain on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @07:01PM (#33350782)
TristanB9 of SF by chance - that’d be a blast from the past! At any rate - Hmm. Know loads of people with Teslas and never heard of anyone going over 10 minutes on AP unless it’s just down a single lane of interstate or something. What kind of 5 hour trips are you doing?
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by standyro on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @07:18PM (#33350927)
I use mine regularly driving to SF or to Arizona from LA for multi hour stretches.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by b34r on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @08:06PM (#33351338)
I use AP every time I’m on the highway and it works quite well in most scenarios for me in Massachusetts. I don’t use it in the snow FWIW.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by LastTrain on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @08:37PM (#33351522)
Are you letting it go, at length, doing anything more than a pilot assist does? I have gone > hour on pilot assist but that hardly qualifies as self driving and doesn’t free me from driving duties - which is what AP is supposed to do
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by b34r on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @09:00PM (#33351688)
Not sure what you mean, EAP is highway-only and using it off the highway is off-label and not safe. I have tried FSD beta and it was not great at the time (10.12.2)

The longest stretch I’ve used EAP for is >3 hrs going from MA to NY. Highways were totally smooth, did its own lane changes, etc.

It can be slightly jerky at times when the traffic keeps speeding up and slowing down sharply, that’s my only real complaint.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by frumper on Thursday October 27, 2022 @04:21PM (#33363472)
I think you're confusing what AP is supposed to do. It's adaptive cruise control + lane keep assist.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by itsoktocry on Thursday October 27, 2022 @08:44AM (#33356647)
>Know loads of people with Teslas and never heard of anyone going over 10 minutes on AP unless it’s just down a single lane of interstate or something

This is how you can tell who is a TSLA shareholder and who isn't.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by tristanb on Tuesday November 08, 2022 @06:12PM (#33525561)
Up to Tahoe, Mendocino hot springs etc. It's really a default action for us now. (British, but yes here in SF), are we old friends?!
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by sowbug on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @09:11PM (#33351763)
Same here. Model 3, purchased 1998, FSD beta since December 2021. FSD isn't perfect, but it works. It's about as skilled as an average student driver, which means I am hands-off but still have to be vigilant for mistakes.

Pucker factor influences any current-generation self-driving. I've given demos to friends in the passenger seat who have had such strong negative reactions that I've had to end the demo -- as in they want to reach over to grab the steering wheel to save our lives in mid-turn. This reaction isn't totally surprising; I've been in human-driven cars with people who simply cannot be a passenger because they're so jumpy.

It takes a leap of faith to let the car drive itself, but with that faith and the requisite attention, the experience is good.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by colordrops on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @09:48PM (#33352019)
1998 huh
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by roflyear on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @09:55PM (#33352078)
Strings got a little jumbled by the bots, don't worry, someone at Telsa will fix it soon ;)
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by sowbug on Thursday October 27, 2022 @12:05PM (#33359635)
What's Telsa?
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by roflyear on Friday October 28, 2022 @10:24AM (#33371744)
More bot string jumbling, I'm afraid.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by sowbug on Thursday October 27, 2022 @01:23AM (#33353457)
Doh, sorry. 2018, first model year, not sure how I typed that....
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by itsoktocry on Thursday October 27, 2022 @08:48AM (#33356693)
>FSD isn't perfect, but it works. It's about as skilled as an average student driver

No, it isn't. Do you think "student drivers" go around banging into things? Comparing the two is ridiculous and dishonest; FSD regularly gets fooled by things no human would ever be confused by.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by sowbug on Thursday October 27, 2022 @11:44AM (#33359304)
I'm sorry your Tesla has hit things. Mine hasn't.

=====

I took a shower since the first version of this comment, so the following edit is an actual shower thought about your comment.

If self-driving vehicles succeed, it will be because they're safer than human drivers. That's obvious. But we probably won't be able to cherry-pick an arbitrary driving metric and show that computers always beat humans. Computer drivers will be safer than humans, but they will make different kinds of mistakes. Instead of 40,000 humans dying in auto accidents each year in the US because of inattention, DUI, sleepiness, overreaction, or poor training, we'll have maybe 1,000 humans dying because of ridiculous computer behaviors. And that 1,000 probably won't be a subset of the 40,000; they'll be 1,000 completely different people.

That will seem weird. The 40,000 deaths feel like a natural part of life, but the 1,000 will feel like a grave injustice.

Yet my computer thinks 1 divided by 10 is 0.10000000000000001, and I still use it for arithmetic.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by heavyset_go on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @06:24PM (#33350411)
Write to your state's Attorney's General office, they usually have consumer affairs divisions. The FTC also has a Bureau of Consumer Protection.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by funstuff007 on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @07:30PM (#33351034)
The Feds are afraid of Musk. You may have better luck at the state level.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by twblalock on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @08:43PM (#33351570)
Why on earth would they be afraid of Musk?
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by datavirtue on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @10:15PM (#33352211)
Twitter
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by 8f2ab37a-ed6c on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @06:17PM (#33350353)
Your life is pretty damn good then, all things considered.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by kyleyeats on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @06:49PM (#33350662)
This is why I never have a good life. I can't give up my right to complain..
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by s1artibartfast on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @06:50PM (#33350679)
Yeah, total humble brag
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by paulcole on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @08:16PM (#33351392)
I think that’s what makes it so funny. It’s not a humblebrag at all. The guy is being so earnest that the silly feature he spent $6,000 extra on top of his fancy car is one of his ”life’s biggest regrets.”
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by ryantgtg on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @07:00PM (#33350776)
> buying into all the marketing about it

How much research did you do? Genuinely wondering.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by ocdtrekkie on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @07:55PM (#33351240)
There's a nonzero likelihood Tesla ends up refunding this once they're forced to recall the feature.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by modeless on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @07:55PM (#33351245)
Agreed on summon and auto park, they are total garbage and not at all useful. Navigate on Autopilot is slightly better, and can actually be nice occasionally, though there are plenty of situations where it just doesn't work. But there is a bit of the enhanced autopilot package that is genuinely useful, and that's autopilot lane changes. Being able to execute lane changes on the freeway just by pressing the turn signal once and without disengaging autopilot works well and is useful. Is it worth $6k? Maybe not, but it's something.

Personally, I bought FSD because I wanted to test it, not because I thought it would be robotaxi-level anytime soon. And also because I believe that Tesla will one day be forced to give free camera and computer upgrades to everyone that purchased FSD (on top of the HW3 upgrade I already got), because the current in-car cameras and computers are not enough to implement what they promised.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by jliptzin on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @09:03PM (#33351711)
I agree, lane changes are a really nice feature for me that made it worth it although depending on how price sensitive you are it might not be worth it. I think people forget or don’t realize that tesla is purposely pricing this stuff for the kinds of people who think $6,000 is pocket change. If that’s not you, don’t buy it.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by unityByFreedom on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @09:20PM (#33351816)
You're still responsible if your lane change causes an accident.

I don't see how it's worth $1. Do you trust the system to properly gauge the speed of a vehicle accelerating to pass you? If not then you need hands and eyes at the ready.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by modeless on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @09:51PM (#33352040)
You still need to monitor cruise control as well, but that doesn't make it useless. It's nice on long drives.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by ethanbond on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @10:02PM (#33352126)
IMO the boundaries of cruise control’s abilities are extremely clear, so it doesn’t require a ton of overhead to know whether you’re pushing up against them.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by williamscales on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @10:37PM (#33352387)
Eh, I'm not so sure about that anymore. Many cars these days have radar assisted cruise control so I think some of the same issues do apply.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by WXLCKNO on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @09:44PM (#33351994)
My new 2023 BMW M340i also has lane change, lane keeping, radar/adaptive based cruise control and under 70kmh on the highway in traffic you don't even need to touch the steering wheel.

The bmw system costs $2k Canadian.

https://youtu.be/7M-J3JydpPA

A comparison between Tesla self driving and bmw, bmw seems superior.

Tesla has spent so much time focused on going to level 5 that other manufacturers had plenty of time to catch up.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by judge2020 on Thursday October 27, 2022 @12:07AM (#33352954)
Ya, the Tesla basic Autopilot & Enhanced Autopilot both are on the same codebase that has received minimal updates since the start of 2020 when they dedicated 100% of their AI towards releasing and improving upon the actual FSD Beta stack. The FSD Beta is quite better at lane keeping, including general 'avoiding obstacles' and whatnot.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by itsoktocry on Thursday October 27, 2022 @08:42AM (#33356625)
>The FSD Beta is quite better at lane keeping, including general 'avoiding obstacles' and whatnot.

Tesla always has something just around the corner that's "better", and they get full credit for it as if already exists. Like their robot tapping into a multi-trillion market.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by judge2020 on Friday October 28, 2022 @01:49PM (#33374758)
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by speedgoose on Thursday October 27, 2022 @12:23AM (#33353072)
Does BMW make their own technology now, or do they still use Mobileye products?

I was quite happy with my old Mobileye equipped i3. It never got updated though.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by wil421 on Thursday October 27, 2022 @06:21AM (#33355535)
My wife’s x7 has it and it’s nice.

According to Forbes it is Mobile until 20225 when the full lineup will switch to Qualcomm.[1]

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/samabuelsamid/2022/03/11/bmw-qu...

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by Lendal on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @10:52PM (#33352490)
Lane change is also buggy now for my Model Y. Since the last couple updates about 5% of the time it jerks back into the current lane after moving about 50% across the line, as if it had suddenly seen a ghost in that other lane. There is nothing there of course, but its jerking motion back to the current lane is very frustrating and embarrassing. Other drivers must think I'm having a seizure.

I drive the car 100% manually now. I don't even use cruise control it's that bad. $60K on a car that doesn't even have usable cruise control is disappointing.

My experiences with FSD tell me that it will never fulfill its promises and I'm just out $10K. Some other manufacturer maybe could do it, but not Tesla under its current leadership.

I'm hoping Lucid can pick up the mantle where Tesla left off.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by humanistbot on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @11:11PM (#33352628)
> I believe that Tesla will one day be forced to give free camera and computer upgrades to everyone that purchased FSD (on top of the HW3 upgrade I already got), because the current in-car cameras and computers are not enough to implement what they promised.

This is called "specific performance" [1] and it is extremely rare for courts to compel fulfilling a contract when the standard approach of monetary damages will suffice. At the very worst case scenario for Tesla, they could be forced to refund those upgrades or even buy back the cars. One big way specific performance is used is if someone contracts to transfer real estate or infrastructure to be used as part of a bigger development project, but tries to pull out. Or if a subcontractor partially fulfills their duties as part of a bigger project, but is holding up key components.

Imagine someone has contracted with a tax accountant to help them respond to an audit. The contract says the client can fire the accountant and end the relationship at any time. The contract also says that if the client fires the accountant, they must pay $1000, and once payment is received, the accountant will transfer all records to the client within 24 hours.

The client fires the accountant and writes a check for $1000. The accountant refuses to take the check and refuses to transfer the files. A court might order specific performance that the accountant must fulfill the terms of the contract. This kind of issue is easy for courts to mandate specific performance, it is pretty straightforward to determine if the files have been transferred or not. The client faces monetary damages for sure if they don't get the files to give to their new accountant. But monetary damages aren't really a good way to make the wrong right.

But assuming a court sides against Tesla, what is the most commonsense remedy to make the wrong right? Refund the sales of a product that was not as advertised, or force the company to make the product into what was advertised? Courts don't have the kind of expertise or understanding of what is technically possible in future technology development.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_performance

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by modeless on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @11:46PM (#33352838)
I'd accept a refund or buyback too, no problem. But I don't think that court ordering specific performance is the only way that early FSD buyers might get free or discounted upgrades. That's not really what I was expecting.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by VagueMag on Thursday October 27, 2022 @06:28AM (#33355578)
If Tesla was ever ordered to refund every FSD package ever sold, how much money would that take? What sort of hit would the stock price take as investors priced out the "solving FSD will be worth a bajillion dollars" premium? I'm not sure Tesla could refund all its FSD sales.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by modeless on Thursday October 27, 2022 @01:13PM (#33360779)
Nobody knows for sure. But they are quite profitable now and I'm sure they could manage it one way or another.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by CloudRecondite on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @11:26PM (#33352707)
It’s pretty crazy you payed 6k to beta test something that you didn’t even believe would work. It’s nice to have a rabid fanbase.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by modeless on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @11:40PM (#33352802)
I do believe it will work. Eventually. After some hardware upgrades. And it's the only system available to the public that even attempts to do these things, so it's the only option if you want to test early. OpenPilot is cool too but it doesn't do everything.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by arcticbull on Thursday October 27, 2022 @01:21AM (#33353439)
> I do believe it will work. Eventually. After hardware upgrades.

Ok but that's not what Elon ever sold, even once, even a little bit.

He's promised full self-driving is one year away for each of the last nine years. [1]

So I'm happy you paid a huge sum of money to beta test a product on a completely unrealistic timeline, but that's not going to suffice for most customers. I have to imagine that many, if not most, people took the company at their word.

[edit] Here's a compilation video. [2]

[1] https://jalopnik.com/elon-musk-promises-full-self-driving-ne...

[2] https://youtu.be/o7oZ-AQszEI

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by modeless on Thursday October 27, 2022 @02:05AM (#33353747)
Yes, Elon has been and continues to be inexcusably optimistic on AI timelines. I think it would be reasonable to fine Tesla for false promises on timelines and on stuff like "all cars contain all necessary hardware for FSD". But being wrong about those things doesn't warrant criminal charges. I was completely aware that the timelines were wrong at the time, but I also believed (correctly) that FSD would be available in a testable form eventually and had no problem spending 5% of the purchase price of my car to participate in the future testing.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by ManuelKiessling on Thursday October 27, 2022 @02:52AM (#33354102)
> inexcusably optimistic

I will definitely bookmark this as a nice replacement for "lying".

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by modeless on Thursday October 27, 2022 @11:26AM (#33359002)
It's only lying if he doesn't believe it. And he demonstrably does. He has a whole division at Tesla designing a humanoid robot for mass production in the next few years on the assumption that the AI will be ready by then. He keeps removing sensors from their cars on the assumption that AI can replace them in a few months' time. If he didn't believe his own statements about AI he wouldn't be doing those things. It may be borderline delusional, but that's not the same thing as lying.

Consider that in the past plenty of other people in the industry have underestimated things that he's overestimated, such as the potential for reusable rockets and the timeline for electric cars becoming viable. And those have been incredible success stories for him, despite his initial overestimation, which really was overestimation, that many called stupid at the time. And AI may yet turn out that way too. Even if he's wildly optimistic about timelines, he may still end up closer to correct than the conservative establishment in the industry which would prefer to see the status quo go on forever, like with disposable rockets and internal combustion engines.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by blaser-waffle on Thursday October 27, 2022 @12:31PM (#33360088)
> It's only lying if he doesn't believe it.

Whether he believes it or not doesn't mean jack. You are still out several thousand dollars for something that doesn't work.

I bet Liz Holmes really truly thought Theranos products were going to work too.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by modeless on Thursday October 27, 2022 @04:05PM (#33363275)
It clearly means something, both from a legal perspective and a moral perspective.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by arcticbull on Thursday October 27, 2022 @05:27PM (#33364278)
Even if both Elon and Holmes believed they were doing the right thing, that doesn't mean they weren't negligent (broadly that they should have known better) or that they didn't cause material harm to those who relied on their representations. This creates both civil and criminal liabilities. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm not sure it does.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by modeless on Thursday October 27, 2022 @06:58PM (#33365156)
I said it means something, not that it absolves them of any responsibility whatsoever. I already said it would make sense to fine Tesla. But the whether they were mistaken or malicious still matters a lot.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by thunky on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @11:44PM (#33352827)
> Personally, I bought FSD because I wanted to test it

Funny how Tesla is able to pull this off. I can't think of another brand that so easily gets people to throw large sums of money at it while expecting so little in return.

I wonder what percentage of Telsa car owners are also shareholders.

Nobody gives Toyota $6k for no good reason, but TM is not in the same league as TSLA.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by modeless on Thursday October 27, 2022 @12:05AM (#33352945)
So little? I'm testing the most advanced driving system available to the public. It does things no other available system even attempts to do. It's pretty cool to be able to try it first, and I don't consider that 'little'.

Also, FSD was $3k when I bought it, so that helps, and it came with a guaranteed computer upgrade too. I wouldn't pay the $15k it costs today.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by clouddrover on Thursday October 27, 2022 @07:06PM (#33365232)
> I'm testing the most advanced driving system available to the public.

Why can't the most advanced driving system park the car: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsb2XBAIWyA

I'd say you've been suckered into doing Tesla's testing work for them. Worse than that, you're even paying them for the very great privilege of being an unpaid intern.

It's perverse. They advertised at you and I think we have to say the manipulation has worked.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by modeless on Friday October 28, 2022 @02:29PM (#33375385)
Because the parking code hasn't been touched in years. All their effort right now is on driving, and that part is improving rapidly, far ahead of other car manufacturers, obviously with a long way still to go.

Being an early adopter of technology always involves paying to test unfinished work. Even the first iPhone (which I also bought) was deficient in many ways. And yet being an early adopter has brought me personally a lot of benefits. The world is not zero sum, turns out.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by clouddrover on Friday October 28, 2022 @06:10PM (#33378612)
> Because the parking code hasn't been touched in years.

So.. the most advanced driving system is so far ahead that it's years behind?

> Being an early adopter of technology always involves paying to test unfinished work.

It really doesn't.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by saurik on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @11:56PM (#33352892)
Toyota isn't even really offering something "new" though? People often throw money after random gimmicks to see what things are like as an early participant. I know people who had early VR headsets and I remember my father getting early portable computers (that weren't quite portable enough ;P). You learn what works and what doesn't and maybe it helps you in your job or maybe it just gives you something to talk about over dinner, but it can be fun to see a car almost (but not quite ;P) drive itself.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by modeless on Thursday October 27, 2022 @12:20AM (#33353054)
I considered working in the self driving field for a while. Being an early adopter puts you in a great position for that kind of thing.

While I didn't take advantage of it for self driving, or the iPhone (though I did buy the first one), I did for VR (backed the Oculus Rift Kickstarter and then made a career in VR) and deep learning (jumped in early and also made it part of my career) and Bitcoin (not part of my career, but still good).

I consider the cost of being an early adopter of things like FSD money well spent given the opportunities it can create for you. I think a lot of people are making money on YouTube simply recording themselves driving around with FSD Beta on.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by thunky on Thursday October 27, 2022 @09:23AM (#33357115)
> I think a lot of people are making money on YouTube simply recording themselves driving around with FSD Beta on

And the videos with the most hits are the ones where it almost gets the driver or nearby drivers or pedestrians killed.

I have a hard time putting FSD in the same category as VR or the iPhone, because those can't kill you. When you bought your first iPhone, I would bet you had high hopes that it would be a nice project and do what it said it would do, in contrast to your admitted low expectations when you paid for FSD.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by blaser-waffle on Thursday October 27, 2022 @12:29PM (#33360044)
> Funny how Tesla is able to pull this off. I can't think of another brand that so easily gets people to throw large sums of money at it while expecting so little in return.

The tech-bro -- basically us here -- crowd thinks that they're immune to marketing. But they get suckered in just as well as anyone, it's just a matter of playing to different preconceived notions.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by cmelbye on Thursday October 27, 2022 @12:39AM (#33353182)
Autopilot is basically worthless to me. I use it for a couple minutes at a time at most. The first time it slammed on the brakes on an empty highway, taking me from 70 to 40, I completely lost faith.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by benhurmarcel on Thursday October 27, 2022 @04:11AM (#33354653)
> I believe that Tesla will one day be forced to give free camera and computer upgrades to everyone that purchased FSD (on top of the HW3 upgrade I already got), because the current in-car cameras and computers are not enough to implement what they promised.

I agree the hardware won't be enough, but I find more likely that the software will actually get available after your current car has passed its normal lifetime, and you'll have gotten rid of it already.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by modeless on Thursday October 27, 2022 @03:30PM (#33362801)
Well, I kept my last car 13 years, and so far this one has actually been more reliable than the last. I paid to get early access, which I already received, so I consider it almost worth the money I paid ($3k) already. Based on the pace of improvement, it's a pretty safe bet that it will be pretty good before I'm done with the car a decade from now.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by soco on Thursday October 27, 2022 @05:30AM (#33355229)
My 7y old VW Touran has autopark which works (nb: for parking places big enough). But maybe it's not the same thing as Tesla's?
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by andrewaylett on Sunday October 30, 2022 @12:56PM (#33396133)
I hired an annoying little Renault a couple of years ago. It would quite happily park either parallel or end-on, did a fairly reasonable job of it too. I didn't use it much, because it's almost as easy to park a car that size manually as it is to hit a couple of buttons :P. I think the difference between that and Tesla is that the Renault still wanted me to put the (manual) gearbox into reverse and use the accelerator to move the car, it was only controlling the steering wheel.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by giobox on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @07:56PM (#33351255)
Curious, what did you expect here? As far as I can tell, enhanced ap is identical to the standard "basic ap" on all cars, the only additions are:

* automated lane change when you press indicator

* Summon (a google tells you all you need to know about how bad)

* Autopark (this has never worked on my model 3 either, aside from a handful of times. Again, common knowledge it doesn't work).

* Automated freeway exit selection

Otherwise, its the same pretty good lane-keep system they give you with the car as standard.

Of course, Tesla being Tesla I'm sure the feature set will change with time, so maybe you get more later? Tesla don't promise this though, and like all tech you should evaluate purchase on its features today, not its promises tomorrow? I might have missed something, but generally thats all it adds over the basic AP you got with the car, and it's quite clearly documented as such. I can certainly agree I'd feel sick too if I'd paid $6k for it in its current advertised form!

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by outlace on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @08:26PM (#33351452)
I thought the "navigate on autopilot" feature was basically FSD but on highway only. But no, it just suggests lane changes that are dumb most of the time. Yes, I can only blame myself really, but I can't believe they would even sell such a worthless package for $6,000 more.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by dham on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @09:11PM (#33351761)
Yea Autopilot is just adaptive cruise control on every other car maker. Such an awful term. Full self driving is the in city driving, negotiating stoplights, turns etc.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by smaryjerry on Thursday October 27, 2022 @09:41AM (#33357339)
I think this is only confusing because most people’s only understanding of autopilot is what they watched in movies when the pilot flicks a button and leaves the cockpit go fight a villain so they imagine autopilot means FSD which it isn’t at all in its original use in planes either.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by m463 on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @08:31PM (#33351478)
The (mobileye) autopilot (version 1) is actually useful and good within its limits. It parallel parks. It summons (in a straight line, like out of the garage). It will maintain speed and distance with traffic aware cruise control. Add autosteer and it keeps its lane well. (autosteer does hunts a bit when roads get super-curvy). But it generally helps drive the car.

Is autopark that bad on the model 3? To parallel park I just pull past an open spot (to let the sonar sensors see the gap) and when the P symbol shows up, put it in reverse and press [Start] on the display. It usually parks better than I could especially with tight spots.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by formerly_proven on Thursday October 27, 2022 @02:48AM (#33354073)
There's a hilarious video where you can see a modern Tesla utterly failing at parking while an old Tesla with mobileye works just fine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsb2XBAIWyA

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by groos on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @08:51PM (#33351624)
I had the option of paying $3,000 for FSD back in 2018, declined, and am still convinced that was the right decision. Have no real complaints about EAP, apart from its phantom braking issues, which seem to have improved with time. I suspect, part of how well EAP works may be how well the training data match your locale.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by meltyness on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @09:12PM (#33351772)
If a $6,000 delayed receipt of goods or service is the biggest regret of your life, I'm afraid I'm going to have to draw a comparison to Steve Carrell in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin"
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by Lendal on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @11:17PM (#33352658)
Okay, what about $10,000? That's what I paid. I took delivery in August 2020 when he was still making the empty promises. Biggest investment failure I've ever had to write off. I guess if it isn't a Bernie Madoff level fraud, it's all good though. Maybe not prison, but I believe Elon Musk's citizenship ought to be revoked at the very least.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by meltyness on Thursday October 27, 2022 @12:08AM (#33352962)
This is what new technology has always looked like.

Going from the discrete alphabet soup of ABS, ACC, SC, SLAM to a continuous mechanism is brand new, and not some repackaging treadmill for management to convince investors they're busy.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by pencilguin on Thursday October 27, 2022 @01:25AM (#33353471)
Apple Lisa was $10,000 when it came out. But it, you know, worked. Came with word processor, spreadsheet, and drawing programs included. A 5MB disk drive, even.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by datavirtue on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @10:13PM (#33352195)
"Other than that it’s a great car."

Please update this review in a few years.

CIO was late to work, again, today because the Tesla no go. One thing after another. It's kind of ridiculous.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by FireBeyond on Wednesday October 26, 2022 @10:28PM (#33352313)
> The summon and auto park don’t really work.

(One of) the things that pisses me off about this is all through Tesla's marketing and website, the consistent undertone is that these are complete and working, but that much of EAP and FSD is "just awaiting regulatory approval", when that's far from the case.

Of course, it's very convenient for Tesla, too, if it never happens (and I think we are a decade or so at least from anything), they will just point blame away from themselves, ignoring that what they've offered would never reach the barrier for regulatory approval. And there will be the usual cries about the short sellers, and "big oil" pressure, rather than placing blame where it lies, Elon's cowboy-esque attitude to the whole thing.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by sgc on Thursday October 27, 2022 @12:23AM (#33353078)
I think one of the the questions being asked here is if there is not something a bit more sinister than just being a cowboy at play, but that it is a ruse to make money. I was literally asking myself that question this morning before I heard of this case. I had no answer (mainly because there is not enough evidence against the hypothesis). I am interested to see what, if anything, they manage to unearth.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by user_named on Thursday October 27, 2022 @12:38AM (#33353177)
Tesla would have gone bankrupt without selling FSD, which is a 100% margin vaporware product.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by epgui on Thursday October 27, 2022 @03:03AM (#33354180)
The financial statements would disagree.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by user_named on Thursday October 27, 2022 @11:13AM (#33358775)
No
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by epgui on Thursday October 27, 2022 @05:25PM (#33364260)
Yes lol, go read them.

Even ignoring any possibility of raising more capital, the amount of revenue recognized from FSD is much smaller than the financial hit that would have been required to bankrupt the company, at every point in time.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by FireBeyond on Friday October 28, 2022 @01:26AM (#33367999)
"Go read them". In yet another case of "why hasn't someone sued/why hasn't the SEC slapped the shit out of him"...

> Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that the carmaker was “about a month” from bankruptcy during the run-up in Model 3 production from mid-2017 to mid-2019

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/03/musk-tesla-was-about-a-month...

You're right, that never really appeared in the annual reports. So either Musk lied to CNBC, or the annual reports played down Tesla's actual position.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by HWR_14 on Thursday October 27, 2022 @12:48AM (#33353242)
At least you didn't pay $10,000 (or is it now $14,000?) for FSD you cannot get into the beta of.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by rzimmerman on Thursday October 27, 2022 @01:34AM (#33353548)
For my Model Y:

The car itself is wonderful. Driving a Tesla is a level beyond anything else I've owned.

Autopilot on freeways works great. I disagree that it's deceptive. The name is confusing to the average person (it sounds like it drives itself without help). But there are constant reminders that you need to pay attention and be ready to take over. Stupid people will be stupid. A name change wouldn't be the worst outcome, but it's a great feature.

Navigate on autopilot is not great. It's kind of useful, but makes dumb lane changes and is too timid in traffic to work. Being able to switch lanes with a turn signal is useful and I use it.

Auto park is garbage and only works on very easy parking spots. Half the time it doesn't even "detect" the spot and won't offer the option. It's also not that good at parking.

Summon (classic) is useful for me. I use it to move my car out of the way to take out the trash. It's cool and not dangerous, though not super useful.

Smart summon is dangerous and not useable. As a previous commenter said, it has serious "nervous raccoon energy" and either gets confused or nearly hits things.

Full self driving is not even close to ready. It's nowhere near what was promised (get in your car and it drives you from A to B). It's unclear to me that this is even possible with the vision hardware in the car. I like playing with it, but I've never had a successful drive without having to take over. This was massively overhyped, perpetually pushed out, and honestly I agree with the fraud case here.

I'm mostly annoyed that all the broken features have sat stagnant while the company works on FSD releases that incrementally improve something that's fundamentally not even close to working right.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by zhoujianfu on Thursday October 27, 2022 @02:20AM (#33353858)
I just want to add a hearty “+1” to the everything rzimmerman said here!

I do not recommend people pay for summon/autopark/fsd/navigate. The basic autopilot is pretty good for highway driving and great that Tesla includes it free though. The simple summon is fun and works most of the time but not worth paying for.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by extrememacaroni on Thursday October 27, 2022 @02:31AM (#33353944)
> I disagree that it's deceptive. The name is confusing

okay then

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by rzimmerman on Thursday October 27, 2022 @04:11PM (#33363365)
In this case I mean that choosing “autopilot” as a name was probably not meant to trick anyone. Just an overestimate of the layperson’s understanding of the aircraft equivalent.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by ricardobayes on Thursday October 27, 2022 @03:49AM (#33354490)
There was never a good reason to use AI for self-parking. Computer-vision based self-parking systems are perfectly functional and robust (see Mercedes from 2014).
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by charcircuit on Thursday October 27, 2022 @04:49AM (#33354925)
Computer vision is AI
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by redindian75 on Thursday October 27, 2022 @01:58AM (#33353701)
I am on FSD beta since Nov of last year, it's an absolute game changer one minute, and a total teenage driver next minute. But every update makes it better , new features , tweaked turning radius, the microsecend it takes to move forward - every bit of detail is tweaked.

I use it all the time - it takes me to dentist, drives me home - every single drive. It actively monitors traffic lights when stopped & when it turns green - it chimes, blinking lights, yields, left turn yields, pedestrians, bicycles on the road, dogs and blind spots - all of it gets managed by the car with just 5-10% of my attention. It doesnt let me pickup my phone (I get a warning) or fiddle with spotify. I need to keep my hands and be active, but I am not anxious about blind spot checks or bicycles in the dark.

When it is released to the general public, it will be groundbreaking.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by bergenty on Thursday October 27, 2022 @02:07AM (#33353765)
FSD works really well. I live in a suburban place so it works well almost 100% of the time. I haven’t “driven” to the grocery store in months.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by agumonkey on Thursday October 27, 2022 @02:53AM (#33354114)
I'm surprised, maybe I was blinded by pro-tesla channels, but some recent videos about users trying the latest "autopilot" update shown very impressive results (crossing+insertion into low sight high traffic roads).
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by leobg on Thursday October 27, 2022 @03:38AM (#33354425)
I don’t think it’s a scam. It’s just Elon getting ahead of himself. And reality sometimes just needs a little to catch up. Both Tesla and SpaceX would not exist if his mind didn’t work like that.

If Summon doesn’t work, try turning on Bluetooth on your phone.

Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by ricardobayes on Thursday October 27, 2022 @03:44AM (#33354460)
Self-driving is currently in the 'valley of disillusionment', much like 3D printing was about 3 years ago. 3D printing currently doesn't make any headlines, but the industry quietly adopted it. I think self-driving is going to go through similar changes.
Re:Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by smaryjerry on Thursday October 27, 2022 @09:53AM (#33357474)
I agree. Self driving, VR, and 3D printing all feel like they are in the same boat together. It’s tech that if it was a little better it could get full adoption but the current solutions feel like they aren’t enough for full adoption. Self-driving lacks because what’s the point if you have to self monitor at the same time, VR because the resolution and frame rate are barely better than a desktop computer so the immersion isn’t there, and 3D printing lacks because it’s extremely slow, struggles with certain designs, and needs sanding after - again all are missing the primary problems they mean to address and are only half-fixes. Why do I want to 3D print something when it’s going to take me 2 hours to sand down the ugly edges also? Why do I want full self driving when I have to stay just as alert? Why do I want immerse myself in a virtual reality that feels so fake?