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Because you can only use it during prime driving conditions and yet people compare it to overall incidents when driving.

by nojito 6y ago

smnrchrds 6y ago
And Teslas are new cars with modern safety features yet they compare them with all cars, many of them are old cars and lack many of those safety features.
p49k 6y ago
Not sure why you’re being downvoted because IMO this is touching on the reason why there is a backlash: Tesla constantly overstates and overpromises on their technology and then acts aggressively toward journalists and others who provide criticism and more accurate data. When it comes to safety this behavior is seen as even more egregious than it normally would.
filoleg 6y ago
I dont know what you mean by “prime driving conditions”, but it seems to work great both in sunny clear weather and in severe rain and thunderstorm, as well as with varying levels of traffic (from none to heavy). I have been using it for almost a year on my daily commute to work (~13 miles one way), and only once it didn’t let me engage autopilot due to severe weather (but it was so bad, even i couldnt see much, so i had to pull over at the nearest exit and wait until weather conditions cleared up; and no, i wasnt going to let autopilot drive in such poor conditions, i just wanted to check if it would let me engage it). Every other time, even in thunderstorms and rain, it worked flawlessly (and we get plenty of rainy days here in PNW, though mostly not waterfall-tier of rain like you would get on east coast). I can imagine, it would probably not work well with significant snow on the roads, but i didnt get a chance or reason to test it, because when it snows enough here to be an issue, everything pretty much gets closed.
- olliej 6y ago
  prime driving conditions means: well marked freeways. Accidents primarily happen in areas like suburban and city streets with pedestrians, effectively randomized lighting and road surfaces, and random mix of traffic lights, stops sign, and poor road markings. The closer you get to the latter the less likely AP is to engage, and also the higher likelihood of a crash for any vehicle. Effectively AP is ensuring that it can never been operating in the situations that produce the bulk of the crash rate statistics, so any claims of relative safety are kind of meaningless.
  - perl4ever 6y ago
    >Accidents primarily happen in areas like suburban and city streets I was just taking a defensive driving course for the insurance discount, and I think it said the vast majority of (lethal, major) accidents are on two lane rural highways. Because in the US they are often posted at 55 mph, and have uncontrolled intersections, unpredictable visibility, no separation between oncoming traffic, and so on. But I assume you also wouldn't want to use autopilot there either.
zxcvbn4038 6y ago
The idea of prime driving conditions isn’t really valid, spend a couple hours watching “idiot driver” videos on YouTube and I think it’s pretty apparent that people can make mistakes regardless of how optimal the conditions are. The number one problem I see (particularly in the Russian videos) is when people try to fly past stopped or slowing vehicles on a two lane road and end up crashing into a vehicle that has stopped or slowed down to turn across the oncoming lane. The number two problem I see (mostly in US videos) is that people just plow straight into anyone not driving perfectly - no attempt to slow or dodge - I’m guessing this is some cultural thing “(I have right of way|other driver is in the wrong) so physics don’t apply to me” Number three thing I see is trucks with uneven loads cause a lot of problems. Both the drivers overcompensating for uneven or shifting distribution, and catastrophic failure of the vehicle itself.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

Because you can only use it during prime driving conditions and yet people compare it to overall incidents when driving.

by nojito 6y ago

Because you can only use it during prime driving conditions and yet people compare it to overall incidents when driving.

smnrchrds 6y ago

And Teslas are new cars with modern safety features yet they compare them with all cars, many of them are old cars and lack many of those safety features.

p49k 6y ago

Not sure why you’re being downvoted because IMO this is touching on the reason why there is a backlash: Tesla constantly overstates and overpromises on their technology and then acts aggressively toward journalists and others who provide criticism and more accurate data. When it comes to safety this behavior is seen as even more egregious than it normally would.

filoleg 6y ago

I dont know what you mean by “prime driving conditions”, but it seems to work great both in sunny clear weather and in severe rain and thunderstorm, as well as with varying levels of traffic (from none to heavy). I have been using it for almost a year on my daily commute to work (~13 miles one way), and only once it didn’t let me engage autopilot due to severe weather (but it was so bad, even i couldnt see much, so i had to pull over at the nearest exit and wait until weather conditions cleared up; and no, i wasnt going to let autopilot drive in such poor conditions, i just wanted to check if it would let me engage it). Every other time, even in thunderstorms and rain, it worked flawlessly (and we get plenty of rainy days here in PNW, though mostly not waterfall-tier of rain like you would get on east coast). I can imagine, it would probably not work well with significant snow on the roads, but i didnt get a chance or reason to test it, because when it snows enough here to be an issue, everything pretty much gets closed.

olliej 6y ago
prime driving conditions means: well marked freeways. Accidents primarily happen in areas like suburban and city streets with pedestrians, effectively randomized lighting and road surfaces, and random mix of traffic lights, stops sign, and poor road markings. The closer you get to the latter the less likely AP is to engage, and also the higher likelihood of a crash for any vehicle. Effectively AP is ensuring that it can never been operating in the situations that produce the bulk of the crash rate statistics, so any claims of relative safety are kind of meaningless.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  >Accidents primarily happen in areas like suburban and city streets I was just taking a defensive driving course for the insurance discount, and I think it said the vast majority of (lethal, major) accidents are on two lane rural highways. Because in the US they are often posted at 55 mph, and have uncontrolled intersections, unpredictable visibility, no separation between oncoming traffic, and so on. But I assume you also wouldn't want to use autopilot there either.

zxcvbn4038 6y ago

The idea of prime driving conditions isn’t really valid, spend a couple hours watching “idiot driver” videos on YouTube and I think it’s pretty apparent that people can make mistakes regardless of how optimal the conditions are. The number one problem I see (particularly in the Russian videos) is when people try to fly past stopped or slowing vehicles on a two lane road and end up crashing into a vehicle that has stopped or slowed down to turn across the oncoming lane. The number two problem I see (mostly in US videos) is that people just plow straight into anyone not driving perfectly - no attempt to slow or dodge - I’m guessing this is some cultural thing “(I have right of way|other driver is in the wrong) so physics don’t apply to me” Number three thing I see is trucks with uneven loads cause a lot of problems. Both the drivers overcompensating for uneven or shifting distribution, and catastrophic failure of the vehicle itself.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]