Tesla Defends Autopilot Again After A Fatal Model X Crash
NTSB “Unhappy” With Tesla’s Comment on Fatal Model X Crash https://t.co/2NsI4UyQrh #Tesla #ModelX pic.twitter.com/8No3xE8LbI
— Tesla Motors Club (@TeslaMotorsClub) April 2, 2018
Elon Musk has defended Tesla’s publication of investigation data following a fatal crash that happened while a Model X was driving on Autopilot.
Despite the whole world knowing that Autopilot is not a foolproof self-driving system and was never designed to be, Apple engineer Wei Huang reportedly refused to grab the wheel even after his car had issued several ‘take control’ warnings.
A Good Samaritan at the scene of the Tesla Model X car crash described the car to be "actively emitting full flames from the battery bank." https://t.co/n78v5ekcgV pic.twitter.com/EVGqKJnhcR
— NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) March 24, 2018
The accident occurred on 23 March, when the Model X struck a California Route 101 concrete lane divider head-on between a slip road and the main carriageway, causing massive damage to the car and fatal injuries to Mr Huang.
According to details released by Tesla, Mr Huang had received several warnings to retake control of the car, a process one fellow Tesla owner has suggested could have been caused by bright sunlight and ‘cut lines’ on the road that could have been mistaken for lane markings, confusing the car and triggering it to call upon the human driver.
After harvesting the car’s data, Tesla issued a blog post saying that the driver had “about five seconds and 150 metres of unobstructed view of the concrete divider.” The crash, which utterly destroyed the front of the car, was made much worse because the crash attenuator, a sort of crumple zone for the concrete, had been crushed in a previous accident and not replaced.
Tesla’s statement explained what the official investigation into the crash had found, clearly protecting its interests in terms of stressing that, while its level two autonomous systems are far from perfect, they were not directly at fault. The National Transportation Safety Board – an advisory body – had voiced its displeasure at Tesla’s release of the details.
Lot of respect for NTSB, but NHTSA regulates cars, not NTSB, which is an advisory body. Tesla releases critical crash data affecting public safety immediately & always will. To do otherwise would be unsafe.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2018
Now Elon Musk has responded with a tweet putting the body in its place, pretty much asking the NTSB to stop butting into the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s business regarding autonomous driving.
The bottom line seems to be that it doesn’t matter what kind of autonomous car you’re driving. You, the human driver, need to stay alert and ready to take control at all times.
Comments
Musk can defend it if he wants, but it proves that technology isn’t perfect, and requires more testing.
In a world full of incredible and clever technology, somehow, someway, stupidity and ignorance will always prevail. I don’t mean to make a terrible joke and be ‘that guy’ when this is such a serious matter in which a life has been lost, but based off the information, this accident could have been avoided if Mr. Huang had listened to his car and taken control when instructed.
Why even fit self driving tech into a car in the first place when you know it’s not 100% effective? Sure, you warn people, but if it wasn’t in the car in the first place, a lot of trouble could be saved. Just another pointless gimmick in the war on cars in my opinion.
Even if you ignore the imperfect autonomous systems and the drivers failure to grab the wheel, at the end of the day, WHERE THE HELL WAS THE CRUMPLE ZONE?!?!
Tesla is not at all at fault for this.
They don’t advertise it as fully-autonomus and the man woulndn’t put his hands on the wheel. If you look at youtube for “autopilot prevents crash” you will find hundreds of clips, as this is one icolated incident. Humans would have done worse.
The car crashed In barrier then it got hit by another car all at highway speed… Unless you drive tank you would not survive.
Damn its a new technology that has to be developed. Its in the beguinning phase
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The problem is that Tesla’s Autopilot is NOT an Autopilot. It is nowhere near the level of the likes of Waymo. It is simply a glorified lane-assist system, yet it is marketed as full autonomy. No self-driving technology is perfect (and neither is any human driver), but Tesla’s is FAR from the best out there. I think they should ditch this losing battle and let the companies who can actually do it well deliver.
the world needs less autopilots!