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For every tragedy, there are tragedies avoided. I can attest to a few. In the last 10,000 miles, Autopilot has: safely swerved to avoid a car that would have si

• hvidgaard 7y ago
  That squarely puts Autopilot in the "Driver Aid" category. That is fine, just don't go telling people that it can drive unassisted.
  • bmat 7y ago
    Before owning a Tesla I did feel like Autopilot was overhyped, but I now realize that's more because of media coverage than anything Tesla is actively conveying. The vehicle software actively encourages driver attentiveness. Moreover when you actually experience Autopilot, it becomes abundantly clear that it can't drive unassisted.
    • hvidgaard 7y ago
      Then don't call it Autopilot and stop saying it will be able to drive you on the highway soon.
    • WA 7y ago
      > Moreover when you actually experience Autopilot, it becomes abundantly clear that it can't drive unassisted. I think it's different: On long stretches of highway, it actually can drive mostly unassisted. It can't drive unassisted in city traffic or in construction sites, but I totally understand why people would overrate its capabilities. In clear and good conditions, it's actually more than a simple drive assistant.
  • Erlich_Bachman 7y ago
    > just don't go telling people that it can drive unassisted. No one does. Literally no one. No owner, not Tesla themselves, not their website, not their sellers. Why do people keep bringing this up. Everybody knows it is not full self-driving, yes we all know, yes and? Where does this zealotry come from?
    • gertrunde 7y ago
      Unfortunately, it's probably down to the choice of name "Autopilot", that leads folk to make assumptions.
    • hvidgaard 7y ago
      Their marketing for for a long time structured such that you got the idea that is was a literal autonomous driving ability. They've only toned it down after multiple accident, and I'm sure it's the reason so many people still believe it to this day.
      • Erlich_Bachman 7y ago
        So the "problem" you referring to is solved? Their marketing is good now? I just think that there is no reason keep repeating the old things then that are not relevant anymore, that don't even refer to anything anymore and only create a lot of confusion. (Let's just assume it was a problem, even though I don't ever remember being fooled by it or seing any commercial or anything without a disclaimer "NOT FULLY AUTONOMOUS SELF-DRIVING, REQUIRES DRIVER ATTENTION".)
        • hvidgaard 7y ago
          They should start with not using a misleading name, Autopilot.
          • radium3d 7y ago
            Autopilot is not a misleading name actually. You, the press and others just have ingrained a false definition of the word. "An autopilot is a system used to control the trajectory of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without constant manual control by a human operator being required. Autopilots do not replace human operators, but instead they assist them in controlling the vehicle."
• lostmsu 7y ago
  In the last 10,000 miles I had no accidents. In fact, I had none in the last 50,000 miles. It is a big question if any of what you mention here would be as much as a touch, if you did not have autopilot in the first place.
  • bmat 7y ago
    That's fair. In ~200k miles of driving I've also had zero accidents so maybe it's a stretch to call these things 'tragedies avoided'. But the point stands that Autopilot does little things every day to improve safety, but they get little media coverage since they're mundane and boring.
• aembleton 7y ago
  How many accidents did you have per 10k miles in your last car? I've never had an accident in the last 200k miles, across three cars; none of which had anything more advanced than regular cruise control.
  • bmat 7y ago
    Zero accidents in 200k miles, so "tragedies avoided" was probably the wrong way to put it. My point is: for every one tragedy, there are hundreds of little ways Autopilot makes everyone on the road safer.