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People doing ‘crazy things’ with Tesla’s autopilot are spoiling it for everybody
- unimpressive 11y agoMisleading title, this is an update on the previous story: "Tesla chief executive Elon Musk is warning that some new limits may be coming to the company's autopilot feature because of "some fairly crazy videos on YouTube" showing drivers behaving dangerously while the car is in control."
- tempestn 11y agoThe title is the original from the story. You mean the story's title is misleading because it paraphrases "crazy videos" into "doing crazy things"?
- unimpressive 11y agoNo I mean it's misleading in that it looks like every other news article that came out about people doing dangerous stupid things with the autopilot, when the actual story is that Tesla has responded to the glut of people doing dangerous things.
- stevecalifornia 11y agoThe Chrysler 200 has 'autopilot'. It sees the lane and will steer for you (within reasonable limits), however, it somehow detects when your hands are not on the wheel and after 10ish seconds will sound an alarm, turn the dash red and deactivate the auto-steering. It seems like Tesla should do this.
- mikeash 11y agoTesla does this if the car loses confidence and thinks you might need to take over. You can drive for quite a while completely hands-free, but only if the road is good and the car is handling it well. I think this is a pretty good way to do it, personally. I'd be sad if they dropped it to match the lowest common denominator and required hands on the wheel always.
- tzs 11y agoWhat does it do when operating hands-free if conditions change and it loses confidence, but you ignore the signal to take over?
- mikeash 11y agoIt beeps at you with ever greater urgency, then if you still neglect it, it puts on the hazard lights and stops the car.
- Asbostos 11y agoHow is driving hands free different from being the lowest common denominator? The people in those videos weren't doing much more than taking their hands off the wheel. Sure, one was holding other items, but he could have dropped them and grabbed the wheel in an emergency. What would you be doing with your hands if they're not on the wheel but still be more safe than this?
- mikeash 11y agoI'm not sure I understand what you're getting at. The lowest common denominator in terms of cars with lane-keeping is to require the driver to keep their hands on the wheel. That's how all systems work currently, besides Tesla's. I'm just expressing my hope that Tesla doesn't decide to do that too.
- lukev 11y agoMaybe they should have called it something other than "autopilot", then.
- mikeash 11y agoI keep seeing this sentiment and I keep not understanding it. Many actual autopilots are simple heading or altitude holding systems. The analogy to Tesla's system seems just about perfect.
- lukev 11y agoReal autopilots, sure. Most people are exposed to autopilot systems only through movies where the autopilot not only can fly the ship in combat, but make cappuccinos and (more likely than not) has a sexy female voice.
- mikeash 11y agoGot an example of something that isn't SF? The only one I can think of right now is Otto from Airplane! whose capabilities are actually vaguely realistic, even if his mechanics are a little... off.
- manicdee 11y agoSo people do stupid things with Audi autopilot on YouTube but nobody blinks an eye. One guy sits in the backseat of his Tesla, and everyone loses their minds! Of course I can't find the video now, but last year an Audi driver posted video of his car on autopilot, and he tried to move to the passenger seat but bumped the steering wheel while doing so, cancelling autopilot, leaving him not quite in the driver's seat with a car that was expecting manual control. But hey, this time it's a Tesla so it gets the attention.