3 ms·

Say whatever you want about the effectiveness of autopilot and the self driving program, but you can't just hang 6 deaths on autopilot. People are stupid and do

Say whatever you want about the effectiveness of autopilot and the self driving program, but you can't just hang 6 deaths on autopilot. People are stupid and do stupid things. The absolute worst thing I can rationally say about autopilot is that it requires good judgement from the general populace, and that's irrationally hopeful. In 2016, at least 7 people had died from car surfing [0] their non-self-driving cars. Of course people are going to die using autopilot, just like people are going to die not using autopilot. People are dumb, and I'm including myself in that, too. [0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/10/12/the-dangerous-thrill-of-car-surfing-claims-its-7th-young-life-of-the-year/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/10/1...

Terretta 5y ago
The white frame of the screen above the sink in my kitchen window is marred by giant bold black lettering warning screens don’t prevent children from falling out so keep your window closed. I think about that when restarting my push lawn mower after I killed the engine by letting go of the safety cutoff handlebar to get a dangerous rock out of the way. Maybe its easier to just mow over the rock and hope it doesn’t get bashed my way. And when trying to tape up boxes using the new 3M packing tape dispensers that only extend the cutting teeth if you sufficiently mash the dispenser against the box at an awkward angle. You can unscrew that lever and Sugru or epoxy the mechanism in normal cutting position, or never ever discard your 3M dispenser from before someone sued them. What I think, though, is: This is why we can’t have nice things.
- brianwawok 5y ago
  But look at seatbelts. Low annoyance, saved many many lives. Some safety stuff is great. Some is annoying. How do you draw that line? Put a price per death at $1,000,000 and see if the change is worth it? Or if a human life is priceless, then we must always do all the safety changes.
enraged_camel 5y ago
I don't think it's quite as simple as blaming those who died for being stupid. Autopilot's capabilities are exaggerated by both Tesla and Musk to the point of being fraudulent. This leads many drivers to put too much faith and confidence in it. In addition, the mechanism to detect that the driver is paying attention is overly simplistic and easily bypassed. They don't even use weight-detection on the driver seat, despite the fact that the seats have the capability. Similarly, some of the other manufacturers have driver-facing cameras that further help ensure the seat is occupied. These are not complex mechanisms, and it is odd that Tesla does not have them. You could make the argument that people will find a way to circumvent the mechanisms no matter what they are, but I don't think that absolves Tesla of the responsibility to at least try a bit harder.

Terretta 5y ago

The white frame of the screen above the sink in my kitchen window is marred by giant bold black lettering warning screens don’t prevent children from falling out so keep your window closed. I think about that when restarting my push lawn mower after I killed the engine by letting go of the safety cutoff handlebar to get a dangerous rock out of the way. Maybe its easier to just mow over the rock and hope it doesn’t get bashed my way. And when trying to tape up boxes using the new 3M packing tape dispensers that only extend the cutting teeth if you sufficiently mash the dispenser against the box at an awkward angle. You can unscrew that lever and Sugru or epoxy the mechanism in normal cutting position, or never ever discard your 3M dispenser from before someone sued them. What I think, though, is: This is why we can’t have nice things.

brianwawok 5y ago
But look at seatbelts. Low annoyance, saved many many lives. Some safety stuff is great. Some is annoying. How do you draw that line? Put a price per death at $1,000,000 and see if the change is worth it? Or if a human life is priceless, then we must always do all the safety changes.

enraged_camel 5y ago

I don't think it's quite as simple as blaming those who died for being stupid. Autopilot's capabilities are exaggerated by both Tesla and Musk to the point of being fraudulent. This leads many drivers to put too much faith and confidence in it. In addition, the mechanism to detect that the driver is paying attention is overly simplistic and easily bypassed. They don't even use weight-detection on the driver seat, despite the fact that the seats have the capability. Similarly, some of the other manufacturers have driver-facing cameras that further help ensure the seat is occupied. These are not complex mechanisms, and it is odd that Tesla does not have them. You could make the argument that people will find a way to circumvent the mechanisms no matter what they are, but I don't think that absolves Tesla of the responsibility to at least try a bit harder.