Tesla driver killed in auto-pilot collision

[Kaido]

A model X may have crashed while in Autopilot mode last week.

Yeah, count me out for beta-testing that feature D:

 

[LTC8K6]

https://youtu.be/UgNhYGAgmZo?t=39

That's the type of video you see. Never have their hands on the wheel, paying no attention. The car doesn't seem to indicate anything about having your hands on the wheel?

IIRC Brown made a video where he said the car only asks you to put your hands on the wheel when the system is unsure of what to do.

 

[Ferzerp]

Also, apologies for my heated answer. I just got sick of this topic from well meaning friends and acquaintances is all.

To give you an idea, I probably used auto pilot for 15ish miles today on, admittedly, sub-par roads for it, but still. In that time I had to make 2 danger averting corrections. One was a swerve into the oncoming lane while a car was approaching, the other was the same with no car. On the freeway, yes, it is wonderful, but you still have to watch it pretty closely. On streets that have intersections and oncoming traffic, or traffic turning in, though, you're monitoring it extremely heavily. Frankly, I don't understand how someone who has used it in the past could make the mistake of totally ignoring the road. It really is bewildering to me.

edit: I too could pick perfect scenarios for it and make videos implying it's a perfect system, but it would be disingenuous. I'm not saying it isn't wonderfully helpful. It is, and I am glad to have it. At the same time though, it does require that a person not make crazy assumptions with it.

 

[agent00f]

It doesn't take faith that it will definitively work 100% of the time. The guy who crashed clearly knew the limitations better than most, yet he still looked away due to some confidence it'll be fine in that situation (straight road, clear weather, etc). It wasn't. I've had to show tesla owners how autopilot might fail on curved roads over their excitement for the feature ("guess I'll need to be more careful" was one reply). I suspect many owners have found out these limitations the hard way, but caught it before crashing, and/or don't admit to it to protect tesla/themselves.

Responsible carmakers familiar with liability simply don't let users take their hands off the wheel, at least until they've figured it out better, but I supposed that makes them less edgy which is what makes Tesla popular.

 

[Ferzerp]

yet he still looked away due

I wouldn't really called making the explicit decision to watch a DVD while driving "[looking] away".

 

[Kaido]

Feds: Tesla Model S In Fatal Autpilot Crash Was Going 74 MPH In A 65 Zone:

http://jalopnik.com/tesla-model-s-in-fatal-autpilot-crash-was-going-74-mph-1784332917

 

[Insomniator]

Feds: Tesla Model S In Fatal Autpilot Crash Was Going 74 MPH In A 65 Zone:

http://jalopnik.com/tesla-model-s-in-fatal-autpilot-crash-was-going-74-mph-1784332917

If it went the posted speeds it would be the most dangerous car on the road. I guess it would know to stay to the right lane though.

Going 65 in a 65 zone is scary slow on the parkway or turnpike in NJ as an example.

 

[vi edit]

I still think people completely underestimate just how much can happen in such a short amount of time. 2 seconds @ 74MPH is just under 220 feet. That's 13 car lengths of the tesla or nearly 5 school busses. Between reaction and braking distance you could easily be looking at double that distance to come to complete stop.

Windows for error are small and get even smaller the faster you go. That's why looking down at a phone and texting is such a dangerous thing. A lot can happen in a very short amount of time.

 

[Squeetard]

Geez people. The truck driver did not see him and hung a left in front of the car. Neither man nor machine could stop in time. This happens daily all over our roads.

 

[Accord99]

Geez people. The truck driver did not see him and hung a left in front of the car. Neither man nor machine could stop in time. This happens daily all over our roads.

The truck didn't see him because he started the turn before the Tesla came into view. The truck had already crossed the median, two highway lanes and was 40-50 feet clear of the highway. That's a long time for the Tesla driver to not be looking at the road.

 

[Squeetard]

The truck didn't see him

Exactly. Turned right in front of him he did. He was making a left turn off a highway, not from a dead stop, he had some speed going. The road was piss flat and straight You could see a car a mile away if you looked.

Your taking the word of a trucker who just possibly killed someone through negligence. Charges are pending so we'll see who is right.

 

[Accord99]

Exactly. Turned right in front of him he did. He was making a left turn off a highway, not from a dead stop, he had some speed going. The road was piss flat and straight You could see a car a mile away if you looked.

No, from the trucker's point of view he was looking towards the crest of a hill and would only have visibility of several hundred meters. A poster on Arstechnica went to that location and timed it at about 13 seconds for oncoming vehicle to become visible to him and reached his location.

Your taking the word of a trucker who just possibly killed someone through negligence. Charges are pending so we'll see who is right.

It's been nearly 3 months, if there's no charge of any kind yet there will probably never be a charge. And I'm taking the evidence of where the truck was and where the truck was hit. That evidence fits in very well with him making his turn when there was no oncoming traffic. The Tesla driver had many seconds, probably more than 10, to react but he didn't.

 

[Kaido]

Preliminary NTSB report:

http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Pages/HWY16FH018-preliminary.aspx

As a result of the initial impact, the battery disengaged from the electric motors powering the car. After exiting from underneath the semitrailer, the car coasted at a shallow angle off the right side of the roadway, traveled approximately 297 feet, and then collided with a utility pole. The car broke the pole and traveled an additional 50 feet, during which it rotated counterclockwise and came to rest perpendicular to the highway in the front yard of a private residence.

Dang