Tesla Defends Autopilot Again After A Fatal Model X Crash
Elon Musk has defended Tesla’s publication of investigation data following a fatal crash that happened while a Model X was driving on Autopilot.
Despite the whole world knowing that Autopilot is not a foolproof self-driving system and was never designed to be, Apple engineer Wei Huang reportedly refused to grab the wheel even after his car had issued several ‘take control’ warnings.
The accident occurred on 23 March, when the Model X struck a California Route 101 concrete lane divider head-on between a slip road and the main carriageway, causing massive damage to the car and fatal injuries to Mr Huang.
According to details released by Tesla, Mr Huang had received several warnings to retake control of the car, a process one fellow Tesla owner has suggested could have been caused by bright sunlight and ‘cut lines’ on the road that could have been mistaken for lane markings, confusing the car and triggering it to call upon the human driver.
After harvesting the car’s data, Tesla issued a blog post saying that the driver had “about five seconds and 150 metres of unobstructed view of the concrete divider.” The crash, which utterly destroyed the front of the car, was made much worse because the crash attenuator, a sort of crumple zone for the concrete, had been crushed in a previous accident and not replaced.
Tesla’s statement explained what the official investigation into the crash had found, clearly protecting its interests in terms of stressing that, while its level two autonomous systems are far from perfect, they were not directly at fault. The National Transportation Safety Board – an advisory body – had voiced its displeasure at Tesla’s release of the details.
Now Elon Musk has responded with a tweet putting the body in its place, pretty much asking the NTSB to stop butting into the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s business regarding autonomous driving.
The bottom line seems to be that it doesn’t matter what kind of autonomous car you’re driving. You, the human driver, need to stay alert and ready to take control at all times.
Comments
Musk can defend it if he wants, but it proves that technology isn’t perfect, and requires more testing.
Yes , i agree . You want to test new technologies , new powertrains etc etc but you need to do on closed roads and you need to release what you experimented on public just when you are 100% sure that what you’ve created is completely safe and functional. This is the same story that’s happened with Uber , you can’t test a 5000 lb Volvo that drives itself on a road full of real people… And same for tesla , if the car batteries took fire means that the battery pack has some issues , and while a recall from every other carmaker can happens sometimes , Teslas are continuosly under accuse for problems with autopilot and others build problems …
That why they say that you need to stay focused when using it…
Tesla has never said that the autopilot is perfect. to enable it you have to read a long policy on how its NOT perfect and you will pay attention. It also notes that this is a BETA test….the only way this system can get better, is people testing it…but if your using it as a perfect running example, its the users error. If apple released a beta version of IOS, would you complain it has bugs?
In a world full of incredible and clever technology, somehow, someway, stupidity and ignorance will always prevail. I don’t mean to make a terrible joke and be ‘that guy’ when this is such a serious matter in which a life has been lost, but based off the information, this accident could have been avoided if Mr. Huang had listened to his car and taken control when instructed.
Yup, it’s sad that he passed but this really isn’t Tesla’s fault.
Totally not Tesla fault. He did warned and choose to ignored it. Case closed.
Still, given the stupidity and ignorance that always prevails, one would assume that a car manufacturer would have more brains than to let paying customers betatest their 2 tone blunt weapons in live traffic. The technology is not here for this yet. If it were, then there would not be chaos with every crash like this with poeple shifting blame left and right. There is no experience to legislate the systems, there is no experience to put out the fires (which seems more and more alarming to me, the more crashes I see) there is only uncertainty and the promise that one day autonomous cars will be fully integrated in every day traffic. That is the day that “the technology” will be here. Until then, we are just playing minigods hoping we don’t create a black hole somewhere down the line.
honestly, we should be making driver tests harder so that we have better drivers on the road, not the idiots that plague them today.
Why even fit self driving tech into a car in the first place when you know it’s not 100% effective? Sure, you warn people, but if it wasn’t in the car in the first place, a lot of trouble could be saved. Just another pointless gimmick in the war on cars in my opinion.
blame the person, not the technology
Because that’s really the only way it can get better
Even if you ignore the imperfect autonomous systems and the drivers failure to grab the wheel, at the end of the day, WHERE THE HELL WAS THE CRUMPLE ZONE?!?!
It says it right in the article:
The crash, which utterly destroyed the front of the car, was made much worse because the crash attenuator, a sort of crumple zone for the concrete, had been crushed in a previous accident and not replaced.
Tesla is not at all at fault for this.
They don’t advertise it as fully-autonomus and the man woulndn’t put his hands on the wheel. If you look at youtube for “autopilot prevents crash” you will find hundreds of clips, as this is one icolated incident. Humans would have done worse.
natural selection at work
The car crashed In barrier then it got hit by another car all at highway speed… Unless you drive tank you would not survive.
I bet I’d survive in my 1996 Nissan Primera. Pretty much a tank.
Did somebody say tank?
bet my 83 F 250 4 wheel drive would have walked out of there with me driving it. then i would have not been dumb enough to run into the wall in the first place!! lol
Damn its a new technology that has to be developed. Its in the beguinning phase
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The problem is that Tesla’s Autopilot is NOT an Autopilot. It is nowhere near the level of the likes of Waymo. It is simply a glorified lane-assist system, yet it is marketed as full autonomy. No self-driving technology is perfect (and neither is any human driver), but Tesla’s is FAR from the best out there. I think they should ditch this losing battle and let the companies who can actually do it well deliver.
said by the jealous guy that will never be able to afford one
the world needs less autopilots!
Autonomous cars are all well and good, but Tesla’s aren’t autonomous