6 ms·
Naming the feature "autopilot" is dangerously misleading.
by kzrdude 6y ago
Naming the feature "autopilot" is dangerously misleading.
- rcMgD2BwE72F 6y agoIs it? What differs between Tesla's autopilot and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot
- bagacrap 6y agodon't forget the moniker "full self driving"
- legolas2412 6y agoAnd then saying that "all our cars have full self driving hardware". I know people who thought that they had it basically done, and only a few regulatory approvals were left.
- Zenbit_UX 6y agoEveryone in this thread knows at least one such person.
- closeparen 6y ago"Self-driving" and "autonomous" are dangerously misleading, "autopilot" has exactly the right connotation: something which can help to achieve and maintain some kind of equilibrium (heading, altitude, lane placement, following distance) but is not smart enough to be left alone.
- D-Coder 6y agoIt's exactly the right connotation for people who know the connotation. I suspect a large fraction of the population thinks that "autopilot" means "no human pilot needed."
- quelltext 6y agoWhy do they think that? It's unreasonable to assume that. Autopilot is a term most people would he familiar from where? Commercial aviation, right? I would argue most people know it's not a system that achieves that goal. Just ask yourself. Do you think airline passengers would feel comfortable if a cabin announcement told passengers: Both pilots are going to take a nap now for the next 10 hours. I do think Tesla should do a better job making sure it's understood that there are limitations. I don't think they need to change the name of the feature because some people claim to have a certain expectation of it which at closer inspection is not justified.
- badprose 6y agoMost people don't learn the term from commercial aviation, they learn they term from movies where someone turns on the "autopilot" then goes to handle whatever is happening at the back of the plane. I assumed autopilots in planes could actually fly by themselves and the pilots were really only there for take-off, landing and turbulence.
- 886 6y agoPlanes can actually land themselves with ILS and MLS systems. Autoland is usually used during bad weather or poor visibility. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0OJ-rPDXNs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0OJ-rPDXNs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=151fGX4xazs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=151fGX4xazs
- miahi 6y agoBut for this they depend on a lot of (expensive) ground infrastructure, that is not available on roads.
- quelltext 6y agoAnd some cars can auto-park nowadays: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_parking https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_parking But neither planes nor cars with autopilot + autoland/park functionality are fully autonomous. The only place where we have this today is on some on rails systems (trains like in Paris, buses on fixed rails like in Tokyo's Yurikamome or some amusement parks, etc.).
- threeseed 6y agoAutopilot means automatic pilot to every layperson on the street. It doesn't mean maintain heading at this altitude under these specific circumstances. It means the plane flies itself. It's like trying to argue that a smartphone is a computer. Technically it is but nobody other than those from a technology background would agree.
- quelltext 6y agoI believe the point is nobody expects planes, where a layperson would know the term autopilot from, to be left unattended by the pilots. So why should this be assumed on the road?
- threeseed 6y agoReally isn't a hard concept to understand. Autopilot means that the plane flies itself. Pilot is there in case it catastrophically fails.
- fastball 6y agoYou mean like how the driver is in the Tesla for if/when it catastrophically fails?
- mark-r 6y agoBecause human nature. No matter what they call it, the better it works the more the human driver will relax and let the machine take over. No matter how many times you warn them that that's inappropriate or unsafe.
- sukilot 6y agoThis is only because Tesla changed the meaning with its "fully self-driving but the government won't let us" marketing lies. In the common parlance, saying "someone is running on autopilot" means they are going through the usual motions but not really paying attention to what happening or responsive to surprises. Pretty close to the aviation meaning and what Tesla car does.
- arkades 6y agoCars already have a name for that: cruise control.
- sukilot 6y agoCruise control maintains cruising speed. It doesn't even try to steer.
- arkades 6y agoCorrect. Which correctly conveys the accurate impression that it is a technology which makes the driving experience somewhat easier in a limited number of ways. Which is why Cadillac calling their autopilot "Super Cruise" accurately conveyed what it does and doesn't do, and doesn't have an endless news cycle about how the "automatic pilot" is neither.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- xvector 6y agoIn naming Autopilot, Tesla very well knew that most people would equate it with Full-Self Driving.
- rcMgD2BwE72F 6y agoTesla knew what autopilot means: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot
- decker 6y agoSo you're saying if they call it "self piloting" and not "self driving" it gets the meaning across?
- Dylan16807 6y agoIf it maintained following distance (or at least tried to) we wouldn't be having this discussion.
- paulcole 6y agoIf you go back through the Wayback Machine’s archive of Tesla’s “autopilot” page it’s sickening how misleading their advertising of that feature used to be. They even worded it perfectly so they could weasel their way out of it when any average person would have a completely different interpretation.
- legolas2412 6y agoAlso the Tesla network. While they were happy to make it seem like it would be driverless and was covered so in the media. On the website it never cared to clarify that. It could have been just a rent your car to a stranger app.