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This whole story is suspect, autopilot requires the seat to be weighted in order to be engaged. Elon also stated that the car didn't have autopilot enabled or F

This whole story is suspect, autopilot requires the seat to be weighted in order to be engaged. Elon also stated that the car didn't have autopilot enabled or FSD functionality: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1384254194975010826 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1384254194975010826

reitzensteinm 6y ago
Has this recently changed? I've certainly seen videos of Autopilot with no driver in the seat, eg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_N5zrFJgII https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_N5zrFJgII
- drusepth 6y ago
  According to the guy in the video (September 2020) the seat sensor exists but doesn't interact with autopilot. The steps he had to take to turn it on and actually exit the vehicle without it turning off automatically was pretty comical though (TL;DW for anyone not watching): 1. Clip his seatbelt behind him, so he could keep it attached after getting out of the seat (undoing your seatbelt turns off autopilot) 2. Start driving at a low speed, turn on autopilot, then bring it to a stop 3. Climb out the window (as the doors didn't seem like they would open while the car was in motion) 4. Use a stick/tripod to tap on the acceleration pedal to resume autopilot driving And even then, the vehicle stopped like 10 seconds later when autopilot got confused about its surroundings. Even if the seat needs weighted down, this seems like a pretty trivial thing to do (put a backpack or something in the seat) if you're already going out of your way to intentionally trick the car in so many other ways. Since the car didn't even have autopilot as a feature, it seems way more likely the riders just went with the age-old "prop the pedal down" method that's caused accidents like this since the beginning of cars.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - viklove 6y ago
    Seems like only one step is necessary 1. Strap in seatbelt behind you 2. Start autopilot 3. Remove yourself from the driver seat, into the passenger seat And now the car is in autopilot with no driver. TBH Tesla should be doing more about this, it's too easy.
sschueller 6y ago
Do all model years (rolling versions) have seat weight sensors?
pyinstallwoes 6y ago
Perhaps the driver was in the driver's seat and engaged autopilot and then hopped over into the passenger's seat and that's exactly when it crashed?
- grecy 6y ago
  The car in question didn't even have autopilot, so it wasn't even a feature on that car that could have theoretically been engaged. It's like saying they started the internal combustion engine before the crash.... which clearly can't be possible, because that vehicle doesn't have an internal combustion engine.
  - jtsiskin 6y ago
    Where does it say it didn’t have autopilot?
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - United857 6y ago
      In the tweet from Elon in the top-level comment.
      - rincebrain 6y ago
        The statement from Musk was "Data logs recovered so far show Autopilot was not enabled & this car did not purchase FSD.", which I would interpret to mean "Autopilot was purchased but wasn't enabled at the time; FSD wasn't purchased at all", otherwise I'd expect him to have written "this car did not purchase Autopilot and FSD."
        ZephyrBlu 6y ago
friedman23 6y ago
This is not true, people routinely get around this restriction.
londons_explore 6y ago
Elon could be wrong if it's a hacked car with autopilot enabled without paying.

reitzensteinm 6y ago

Has this recently changed? I've certainly seen videos of Autopilot with no driver in the seat, eg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_N5zrFJgII https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_N5zrFJgII

drusepth 6y ago
According to the guy in the video (September 2020) the seat sensor exists but doesn't interact with autopilot. The steps he had to take to turn it on and actually exit the vehicle without it turning off automatically was pretty comical though (TL;DW for anyone not watching): 1. Clip his seatbelt behind him, so he could keep it attached after getting out of the seat (undoing your seatbelt turns off autopilot) 2. Start driving at a low speed, turn on autopilot, then bring it to a stop 3. Climb out the window (as the doors didn't seem like they would open while the car was in motion) 4. Use a stick/tripod to tap on the acceleration pedal to resume autopilot driving And even then, the vehicle stopped like 10 seconds later when autopilot got confused about its surroundings. Even if the seat needs weighted down, this seems like a pretty trivial thing to do (put a backpack or something in the seat) if you're already going out of your way to intentionally trick the car in so many other ways. Since the car didn't even have autopilot as a feature, it seems way more likely the riders just went with the age-old "prop the pedal down" method that's caused accidents like this since the beginning of cars.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- viklove 6y ago
  Seems like only one step is necessary 1. Strap in seatbelt behind you 2. Start autopilot 3. Remove yourself from the driver seat, into the passenger seat And now the car is in autopilot with no driver. TBH Tesla should be doing more about this, it's too easy.

sschueller 6y ago

Do all model years (rolling versions) have seat weight sensors?

pyinstallwoes 6y ago

Perhaps the driver was in the driver's seat and engaged autopilot and then hopped over into the passenger's seat and that's exactly when it crashed?

grecy 6y ago
The car in question didn't even have autopilot, so it wasn't even a feature on that car that could have theoretically been engaged. It's like saying they started the internal combustion engine before the crash.... which clearly can't be possible, because that vehicle doesn't have an internal combustion engine.
- jtsiskin 6y ago
  Where does it say it didn’t have autopilot?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - United857 6y ago
    In the tweet from Elon in the top-level comment.
    - rincebrain 6y ago
      The statement from Musk was "Data logs recovered so far show Autopilot was not enabled & this car did not purchase FSD.", which I would interpret to mean "Autopilot was purchased but wasn't enabled at the time; FSD wasn't purchased at all", otherwise I'd expect him to have written "this car did not purchase Autopilot and FSD."
      - ZephyrBlu 6y ago

friedman23 6y ago

This is not true, people routinely get around this restriction.

londons_explore 6y ago

Elon could be wrong if it's a hacked car with autopilot enabled without paying.