> Tesla hasn't re-invented the wheel on life-critical safety systems.

Haven't they? They've removed radar from their cars and now the AEB system uses image recognition. Does any other manufacturer do that?

Most cars don’t have radar at all, so it’s hardly like they’re sacrificing consumers by not including it.

I don't think that's true at all.

"General Motors said Wednesday that automatic emergency braking will be standard on 98% of its new vehicles by Aug. 31, the end of this model year. The four remaining automakers were close to hitting 95% in December."

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-05-31/us-safety-...

I was referring to cars in general, not new cars. It’s absurd to say that something is malpractice when it was standard practice just a couple years ago. I’d prefer that we get rid of the advanced electronics in cars entirely, so I’m not exactly a fan of Tesla’s model, but I’m also not a fan of saying that every car must have radar to be a reasonable car.

Subaru's system has been using stereoscopic cameras for years.

Yet, their AEB system is excellent as per Euro NCAP

https://www.carscoops.com/2022/09/2022-tesla-model-y-perform...

I believe other manufacturers do use other sensors besides radar... but that's still a relatively pedantic question about the efficacy of a single safety feature. It still isn't an apt comparison to the reportedly sloppy design of the Titan sub.

If Tesla decided to make their suspension entirely out of carbon fiber despite knowing carbon fiber handles stress cycles differently and tends to fail catastrophically at the limit then you'd have an apt comparison.

Or you can look at the Boeing 787's carbon fiber body design as an example of how to do something completely differently. They deviated from the norm but that involved years of engineering and testing to identify potential failure points, how operating conditions impact the service life, etc. They designed inspection schedules and procedures for out of spec events like excessive G-forces, hard landings, explosive decompression, over-pressurization due to pack failure, and so on. All of these things are well known with aluminum airplane bodies but not for carbon fiber.

So a 787 operator knows if they have an explosive decompression event exactly what needs to be checked and how many flights to shave off the expected service life.

From what we know right now Titan had a unique hull design yet did absolutely none of the engineering or testing legwork before putting paying passengers inside. That is what makes them reckless and Boeing or Tesla not so much.