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Nobody reads manuals and follows instructions . I feel Tesla is going to learn this lesson that hard way. From the article: "We specifically advise against it

Nobody reads manuals and follows instructions . I feel Tesla is going to learn this lesson that hard way. From the article: "We specifically advise against its use at high speeds on undivided roads," it said. Tesla states clearly in its owner's manual that drivers should stay alert and keep their hands on the wheel to avoid accidents when the Autopilot feature is engaged.

Bromskloss 10y ago
> drivers should stay alert and keep their hands on the wheel What is then the point of having an autopilot?
- woofyman 10y ago
  As a backup to you. Not the other way around.
  - lucb1e 10y ago
    If this is really Tesla's line of thinking, they may want to rebrand that feature. Autopilot definitely suggests something more than helping you steer. I mean, when do you fail to steer in the first place? It's not exactly rocket science; the only use case for this is when the driver falls asleep, in which case the "autopilot" can catch the mistake, slow the car, start some heavy metal music and call the police for a fine to deter the driver from further sleepy driving. Since that's not what it's doing at all, I think this is not how Tesla intends the feature to currently work.
  - dingaling 10y ago
    Flight International, August 1934: The relief which is afforded to the pilot by the use of the Automatic Pilot permits him to devote the greater part of his time to navigation, map reading, and the operation of his radio installation, whereas with manual control, his whole time is occupied with the actual flying of the aircraft. That was the original intent of Autopilot: offload the mechanics of flying so that the pilots could concentrate on finding their destination even at night or in bad weather: conditions in which the autopilot was also immensely superior to an infallible and easily-confused human, not the other way about as we see with systems such as Tesla's. They didn't have to keep their hands on the controls, they could trust that the machine could handle everything except the one-in-one-million scenario.
- dominotw 10y ago
  you don't have to brake .
- CaptSpify 10y ago
  And this is why I don't think they should call it "autopilot". The name is misleading, imo
  - coredog64 10y ago
    How about"copilot"?
    - GadgetJax 10y ago
      MagiControl?
    - kirrent 10y ago
      CoPilot? Someone who can completely take over for you when you're feeling tired. Compared to an Autopilot which requires pilot or skipper supervision I think copilot would be a far worse term if it weren't for the fact that the name doesn't really matter too much.
    - tremon 10y ago
      "driver assist"
  - Bromskloss 10y ago
    Actually, I don't know what it does.
    - CaptSpify 10y ago
      I'm not clear on it either, but I think it's some kind of cruise-control, with auto-steering. (If I'm wrong, someone please let me know)
cloakandswagger 10y ago
People have been trained to recognize the discrepancy between a product's by-the-book usage (which is often impractically stringent, as a CYA for the company) and its real world usage. Tesla could easily have the "autopilot" turn off if no hands are detected on the wheel for, say, 10 seconds. Putting a blurb in the instruction manual about keeping your hands on the wheel but then allowing users to use it hands-free is broadcasting, "Hey, you don't really have to do this"
- dingo_bat 10y ago
  I don't know about most people but there are some things (like cars), that I treat as super-reliable machines that will protect me even if I do some dumb things. And most car systems are made like that. They assume that the driver is going to fuck up at some point and they try to handle that. It seems Tesla's auto-drive feature is not like that. It's like when Chrome has a silly bug, I just accept it as it is and try to work my way around it.
  - chronolitus 10y ago
    > I don't know about most people but there are some things (like cars), that I treat as super-reliable machines that will protect me even if I do some dumb things. It still boggles my mind that people think this way. YOU put yourself in control a potentially deadly vehicle. You choose to do so. What will your super-reliable car do if you run into a pedestrian? "It shouldn't be hard." It is. "We shouldn't expect people to read the manual." We should. If they don't, and injure someone or themselves, they are being criminally negligent.
HillaryBriss 10y ago
> Tesla is going to learn this lesson that hard way. Yes. I hear you. If I, as a non-Tesla driving, regular motorist got grievously injured by a Tesla running autosteer, I bet I'd be able to choose from the nation's finest injury lawyers. There's an old saying: your freedom to Tesla autosteer your vehicle ends at the tip of my bumper. (Or something like that.)
etendue 10y ago
On the medical devices I've worked on, the risk analysis took into account that the users may not read the instructions for use or might be lacking in training. I'm sure that automotive is similar, which has had me wondering what the risk analysis looks like for the Teslas.
raldi 10y ago
> "We specifically advise against its use at high speeds on undivided roads" You don't have to advise; you could mandate. The car knows how fast it's going and where it is, and with a little help from its Internet connection, can know when it's on an undivided road.
FireBeyond 10y ago
"... and then we post blog entries, and our CEO retweets videos of people using our Autopilot exactly in the manner by which we 'specifically advise'." Similar with the garage door incident - "Well, no-one said it should be used without full supervision! It needs to be watched!" ... like in the Tesla videos where the owner summons the vehicle as he's walking out the front door, or hits auto-park... and walks away.
kirkbauer 10y ago
In order to enable autopilot you must agree to the terms right on the display screen. Again it is possible for people to not read them (although they are pretty brief).

Bromskloss 10y ago

> drivers should stay alert and keep their hands on the wheel What is then the point of having an autopilot?

woofyman 10y ago
As a backup to you. Not the other way around.
- lucb1e 10y ago
  If this is really Tesla's line of thinking, they may want to rebrand that feature. Autopilot definitely suggests something more than helping you steer. I mean, when do you fail to steer in the first place? It's not exactly rocket science; the only use case for this is when the driver falls asleep, in which case the "autopilot" can catch the mistake, slow the car, start some heavy metal music and call the police for a fine to deter the driver from further sleepy driving. Since that's not what it's doing at all, I think this is not how Tesla intends the feature to currently work.
- dingaling 10y ago
  Flight International, August 1934: The relief which is afforded to the pilot by the use of the Automatic Pilot permits him to devote the greater part of his time to navigation, map reading, and the operation of his radio installation, whereas with manual control, his whole time is occupied with the actual flying of the aircraft. That was the original intent of Autopilot: offload the mechanics of flying so that the pilots could concentrate on finding their destination even at night or in bad weather: conditions in which the autopilot was also immensely superior to an infallible and easily-confused human, not the other way about as we see with systems such as Tesla's. They didn't have to keep their hands on the controls, they could trust that the machine could handle everything except the one-in-one-million scenario.
dominotw 10y ago
you don't have to brake .
CaptSpify 10y ago
And this is why I don't think they should call it "autopilot". The name is misleading, imo
- coredog64 10y ago
  How about"copilot"?
  - GadgetJax 10y ago
    MagiControl?
  - kirrent 10y ago
    CoPilot? Someone who can completely take over for you when you're feeling tired. Compared to an Autopilot which requires pilot or skipper supervision I think copilot would be a far worse term if it weren't for the fact that the name doesn't really matter too much.
  - tremon 10y ago
    "driver assist"
- Bromskloss 10y ago
  Actually, I don't know what it does.
  - CaptSpify 10y ago
    I'm not clear on it either, but I think it's some kind of cruise-control, with auto-steering. (If I'm wrong, someone please let me know)

cloakandswagger 10y ago

People have been trained to recognize the discrepancy between a product's by-the-book usage (which is often impractically stringent, as a CYA for the company) and its real world usage. Tesla could easily have the "autopilot" turn off if no hands are detected on the wheel for, say, 10 seconds. Putting a blurb in the instruction manual about keeping your hands on the wheel but then allowing users to use it hands-free is broadcasting, "Hey, you don't really have to do this"

dingo_bat 10y ago
I don't know about most people but there are some things (like cars), that I treat as super-reliable machines that will protect me even if I do some dumb things. And most car systems are made like that. They assume that the driver is going to fuck up at some point and they try to handle that. It seems Tesla's auto-drive feature is not like that. It's like when Chrome has a silly bug, I just accept it as it is and try to work my way around it.
- chronolitus 10y ago
  > I don't know about most people but there are some things (like cars), that I treat as super-reliable machines that will protect me even if I do some dumb things. It still boggles my mind that people think this way. YOU put yourself in control a potentially deadly vehicle. You choose to do so. What will your super-reliable car do if you run into a pedestrian? "It shouldn't be hard." It is. "We shouldn't expect people to read the manual." We should. If they don't, and injure someone or themselves, they are being criminally negligent.

HillaryBriss 10y ago

> Tesla is going to learn this lesson that hard way. Yes. I hear you. If I, as a non-Tesla driving, regular motorist got grievously injured by a Tesla running autosteer, I bet I'd be able to choose from the nation's finest injury lawyers. There's an old saying: your freedom to Tesla autosteer your vehicle ends at the tip of my bumper. (Or something like that.)

etendue 10y ago

On the medical devices I've worked on, the risk analysis took into account that the users may not read the instructions for use or might be lacking in training. I'm sure that automotive is similar, which has had me wondering what the risk analysis looks like for the Teslas.

raldi 10y ago

> "We specifically advise against its use at high speeds on undivided roads" You don't have to advise; you could mandate. The car knows how fast it's going and where it is, and with a little help from its Internet connection, can know when it's on an undivided road.

FireBeyond 10y ago

"... and then we post blog entries, and our CEO retweets videos of people using our Autopilot exactly in the manner by which we 'specifically advise'." Similar with the garage door incident - "Well, no-one said it should be used without full supervision! It needs to be watched!" ... like in the Tesla videos where the owner summons the vehicle as he's walking out the front door, or hits auto-park... and walks away.

kirkbauer 10y ago

In order to enable autopilot you must agree to the terms right on the display screen. Again it is possible for people to not read them (although they are pretty brief).