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After talking to quite a few drivers and driving thousands of miles on Auotopilot myself, I don’t think people are confused by the name. It is pretty clear very

After talking to quite a few drivers and driving thousands of miles on Auotopilot myself, I don’t think people are confused by the name. It is pretty clear very quickly what the car can or can’t do. I think people are poor at estimating risk and we would have these accident whatever you call these semi-autonomous features. The interesting thing for me is that despite the shortcomings of the current Autopilot, I wouldn’t go back to a car without. It lowers the strain of driving sufficiently to really be worth it. And I am a driver with a hand on the wheel and eyes on the traffic, all the time.

abalone 8y ago
Help me understand. How does it lower the strain of driving if you have to remain 100% as attentive anyway? Or are you actually less than 100%.
- chrisper 8y ago
  I don't have a Tesla, but I have a car with ACC. When I activate ACC I do not have to pay 100% attention to the distance between my car and the one in front of me and the speed. The car does all the work for me. I only have to keep steering and make sure that if the car in front of me stops in an emergency way that I start breaking myself because in certain cases it is too late for ACC to notice it. In traffic jams (< 30 km/h) ACC takes away 90% of the work. The difference is that my car got marketed with ACC as a driver assitance and not "self driving autopilot."
  - abalone 8y ago
    I am not talking about ACC. I’m talking about autosteering. But it’s interesting you concede the primary benefit is paying less attention. If you did that in a Tesla you would be violating the TOS and be responsible for resulting accidents. Ergo, what is the TOS-compatible benefit?
    - chrisper 8y ago
      I would rather say, it allows me to pay more attention to other things, like the traffic around me, or doing lane changes etc. But that TOS thing is kind of weird. What is "not paying attention"? Looking at a sign while the car in front of you slams the breaks? Technically you are not paying attention to the car at that moment and breaking the TOS.
      - abalone 8y ago
        So if I understand correctly, you’re saying it allows you to pay less attention to the car in front of you and more to the traffic around you. Yeah, you’re absolutely not supposed to do that (in a Tesla at least). You’re supposed to pay 100% as much attention to stuff you might hit as without autopilot. If you hit the car in front of you because autopilot motivated you to look more at other cars around you, Tesla will say you misused the feature. Ergo, what is the benefit? I’m only hearing benefits that result from violating the TOS.
- cynix 8y ago
  The same way traditional cruise control reduces the strain of driving by allowing you to not constantly exert force on the accelerator pedal using your leg/foot, Autopilot reduces the strain of driving by allowing you to not constantly exert force on the steering wheel using your arms/hands.
  - abalone 8y ago
    But you don’t “constantly” exert force on the steering wheel. You only exert force when turning. Otherwise you are just resting your hands on it, same as autopilot. It’s not like the accelerator pedal at all. Again the only significant reduction would seem to be in the mental load of paying attention.
    - cynix 8y ago
      > But you don’t “constantly” exert force on the steering wheel. You only exert force when turning. Otherwise you are just resting your hands on it Even if you're driving on a perfectly straight road, you're not just resting your hands on the steering wheel, you're constantly adjusting it to keep the car travelling straight. Most roads aren't even that straight to begin with, so even more constant adjustments are required.
      - abalone 8y ago
        Ok, so micro-adjustments are automated. But those don’t require much force and it’s certainly not constant. The only constant load is the attention required. I.e. paying attention to straying from the lane. Thus if you’re feeling a big relief, it’s because you’re paying less attention to the road. No?
    - syrrim 8y ago
      Roads naturally go through turns and bends. You need to manually turn the wheel through these bends. You also have lane switching to avoid a slower driver, which tesla does automatically.
  - chrismorgan 8y ago
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
chrisper 8y ago
Then tell me. Why do we hear news from Tesla cars all the time and none of VW, BMW, etc. where we had adaptive cruise control for quite some time?
- bjelkeman-again 8y ago
  Better click bait is my speculation. I haven’t seen any comparative statistics of adaptive cruise control accidents. Would be interesting to see. But then the features are relatively different so hard to compare.
- whatshisface 8y ago
  Tesla's brand power has substantially raised the public interest factor in any story involving it, including accidents. There are no single-edged swords in PR as it seems.
- bertil 8y ago
  Because one death is a tragedy, but a thousand is a statistics. There are literally dozens of thousands of death on the road, millions of accidents per year but, unless a Tesla or Waymo is involved, no one hears about them
- Arn_Thor 8y ago
  Why do we see headlines every time an iPhone spontaneously combusts, but nothing when there are (isolated) incidents with Samsung, Huawei, LG etc.? Because one brand generates clicks, the others don't
  - ahakki 8y ago
    Tesla isn’t Apple. Tesla is more like Essential.
    - Arn_Thor 8y ago
      Not in terms of name recognition and public interest, which is what I was talking about
simias 8y ago
Betting on human beings to remain focused for a long time while being absolutely passive is bound to create issues though, we suck at that. It doesn't help that it's even more difficult to react when the autopilot messes up because your actual reaction time is not from the moment you see the object but from the moment you realize that the autopilot itself has not seen the object.

abalone 8y ago

Help me understand. How does it lower the strain of driving if you have to remain 100% as attentive anyway? Or are you actually less than 100%.

chrisper 8y ago
I don't have a Tesla, but I have a car with ACC. When I activate ACC I do not have to pay 100% attention to the distance between my car and the one in front of me and the speed. The car does all the work for me. I only have to keep steering and make sure that if the car in front of me stops in an emergency way that I start breaking myself because in certain cases it is too late for ACC to notice it. In traffic jams (< 30 km/h) ACC takes away 90% of the work. The difference is that my car got marketed with ACC as a driver assitance and not "self driving autopilot."
- abalone 8y ago
  I am not talking about ACC. I’m talking about autosteering. But it’s interesting you concede the primary benefit is paying less attention. If you did that in a Tesla you would be violating the TOS and be responsible for resulting accidents. Ergo, what is the TOS-compatible benefit?
  - chrisper 8y ago
    I would rather say, it allows me to pay more attention to other things, like the traffic around me, or doing lane changes etc. But that TOS thing is kind of weird. What is "not paying attention"? Looking at a sign while the car in front of you slams the breaks? Technically you are not paying attention to the car at that moment and breaking the TOS.
    - abalone 8y ago
      So if I understand correctly, you’re saying it allows you to pay less attention to the car in front of you and more to the traffic around you. Yeah, you’re absolutely not supposed to do that (in a Tesla at least). You’re supposed to pay 100% as much attention to stuff you might hit as without autopilot. If you hit the car in front of you because autopilot motivated you to look more at other cars around you, Tesla will say you misused the feature. Ergo, what is the benefit? I’m only hearing benefits that result from violating the TOS.
cynix 8y ago
The same way traditional cruise control reduces the strain of driving by allowing you to not constantly exert force on the accelerator pedal using your leg/foot, Autopilot reduces the strain of driving by allowing you to not constantly exert force on the steering wheel using your arms/hands.
- abalone 8y ago
  But you don’t “constantly” exert force on the steering wheel. You only exert force when turning. Otherwise you are just resting your hands on it, same as autopilot. It’s not like the accelerator pedal at all. Again the only significant reduction would seem to be in the mental load of paying attention.
  - cynix 8y ago
    > But you don’t “constantly” exert force on the steering wheel. You only exert force when turning. Otherwise you are just resting your hands on it Even if you're driving on a perfectly straight road, you're not just resting your hands on the steering wheel, you're constantly adjusting it to keep the car travelling straight. Most roads aren't even that straight to begin with, so even more constant adjustments are required.
    - abalone 8y ago
      Ok, so micro-adjustments are automated. But those don’t require much force and it’s certainly not constant. The only constant load is the attention required. I.e. paying attention to straying from the lane. Thus if you’re feeling a big relief, it’s because you’re paying less attention to the road. No?
  - syrrim 8y ago
    Roads naturally go through turns and bends. You need to manually turn the wheel through these bends. You also have lane switching to avoid a slower driver, which tesla does automatically.
- chrismorgan 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

chrisper 8y ago

Then tell me. Why do we hear news from Tesla cars all the time and none of VW, BMW, etc. where we had adaptive cruise control for quite some time?

bjelkeman-again 8y ago
Better click bait is my speculation. I haven’t seen any comparative statistics of adaptive cruise control accidents. Would be interesting to see. But then the features are relatively different so hard to compare.
whatshisface 8y ago
Tesla's brand power has substantially raised the public interest factor in any story involving it, including accidents. There are no single-edged swords in PR as it seems.
bertil 8y ago
Because one death is a tragedy, but a thousand is a statistics. There are literally dozens of thousands of death on the road, millions of accidents per year but, unless a Tesla or Waymo is involved, no one hears about them
Arn_Thor 8y ago
Why do we see headlines every time an iPhone spontaneously combusts, but nothing when there are (isolated) incidents with Samsung, Huawei, LG etc.? Because one brand generates clicks, the others don't
- ahakki 8y ago
  Tesla isn’t Apple. Tesla is more like Essential.
  - Arn_Thor 8y ago
    Not in terms of name recognition and public interest, which is what I was talking about

simias 8y ago

Betting on human beings to remain focused for a long time while being absolutely passive is bound to create issues though, we suck at that. It doesn't help that it's even more difficult to react when the autopilot messes up because your actual reaction time is not from the moment you see the object but from the moment you realize that the autopilot itself has not seen the object.