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> While driving, McGee dropped his mobile phone that he was using and scrambled to pick it up. He said during the trial that he believed Enhanced Autopilot woul
by SilverElfin 1y ago
> While driving, McGee dropped his mobile phone that he was using and scrambled to pick it up. He said during the trial that he believed Enhanced Autopilot would brake if an obstacle was in the way. His Model S accelerated through an intersection at just over 60 miles per hour, hitting a nearby empty parked car and its owners, who were standing on the other side of their vehicle.
Hard for me to see this as anything but the driver’s fault. If you drop your phone, pull over and pick it up or just leave it on the floor. Everyone knows, and the car tells you, to pay attention and remain ready to take over.
- tr81 1y agoWhy would you pull over when you paid top dollars for Autopilot?
- m463 1y agoThe model s has terrible phone docks. Don't get me started on cupholders, I'll bet people have drink mishaps all the time that affect driving. I'm actually kind of serious about this - keeping people's stuff secure and organized is important in a moving car. I'm surprised the touchscreen controls and retiring of stalks aren't coming under more safetly scrutiny. With the new cars without a PRND stalk, how can you quickly reverse the car if you nose out too far and someone is coming from the side? will the car reverse or go forward into danger?
- dzhiurgis 1y agoWhat Tesla touchscreen controls are crucial for driving? FWIW climate is quick little swipe, arguably easier than turning dial.
- nickthegreek 1y agoi’d like to hear that argument.
- m463 1y agolol, I just mentioned direction of travel? defrost? "a quick little swipe" seems like you're trying to minimize something that is actually dangerous. Controls like that should be in one location for muscle memory, stateless and able to be invoked without looking at them. https://fortune.com/2025/03/07/steve-wozniak-says-tesla-is-worst-at-improving-driver-tech/ https://fortune.com/2025/03/07/steve-wozniak-says-tesla-is-w...
- izacus 1y agoThe driver at that time was Tesla Autopilot. So yeah, drivers fault as the jury said.
- tantalor 1y ago1/3 Tesla's fault, 2/3 the operator's
- SilverElfin 1y agoThat sounds indistinguishable from “The driver at the time was the motor”
- samrus 1y agoMotors dont make decisions. Teslas says autopilot does
- ineedasername 1y agoMaybe he would have pulled over if the car’s capabilities hadn’t been oversold. Two entities did stupid things: 1) The person by not waiting to pull over because Elon Musk’s false claims, and 2) Tesla via Elon Musk making those false claims. It passes a classic “but for…” test in causality.
- SoftTalker 1y agoAnd why was his mobile phone in his hand to drop, if he was driving? Most states have laws against mobile device usage while driving, and it was never a responsible thing to do even before the laws were enacted.
- naet 1y agoThe argument is that if the driver was in a different vehicle he would have done just that, pulled over and picked it up, but because he believed the Tesla was capable of driving safely on it's own he didn't do so. Normally I turn the steering wheel when I want to turn my car. If you sold me a car and told me it had technology to make turns automatically without my input then I might let go of the wheel instead of turning it, something I would never have done otherwise. If I then don't turn and slam straight into a wall, am I at fault for trusting what I was sold to be true? If the driver has heard that their Tesla is capable of autonomous driving, and therefore trusts it to drive itself, there may be a fair argument that Tesla shares in that blame. If it's a completely unreasonable belief (like me believing my 1998 Toyota is capable of self driving) then that argument falls apart. But if Tesla has promoted their self driving feature as being fully functional, used confusing descriptions like "Full Self-Driving", etc, it might become a pretty reasonable argument.
- dzhiurgis 1y agoExcept driver already accepted liability. Also this doesn't stand water today as all new cars have some basic autosteer.
- breadwinner 1y agoNo one else falsely advertises it as "Full Self Driving".