Tesla braces for its first trial involving Autopilot fatality

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 431 points –
Focus: Tesla braces for its first trial involving Autopilot fatality
reuters.com

Tesla braces for its first trial involving Autopilot fatality::Tesla Inc is set to defend itself for the first time at trial against allegations that failure of its Autopilot driver assistant feature led to death, in what will likely be a major test of Chief Executive Elon Musk's assertions about the technology.

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The main issue is that they market it like a fully autonomous system, and made it just good enough that it lulls people into a false sense of security that they don't need to pay attention, while also having no way to verify they are, unlike other systems from BMW, GM, or Ford.

Other systems have their capabilities intentionally hampered to insure that you're not going to feel it's okay to hop in the passenger seat and let your dog drive.

They are hands-on driver assists, and so they are generally calibrated in a way that they'll guide you in the lane, but will drift/sway just a bit if you completely take your hands off the wheel, which is intended to keep you, y'know, actually driving.

Tesla didn't want to do that. They wanted to be the "best" system, with zero safety considerations at any step other than what was basically forced upon them by the supplier so they wouldn't completely back out. The company is so insanely reckless that I feel shame for ever wanting to work for them at one point, until I saw and heard many stories about just how bad they were.

I got to experience it firsthand too working at a supplier, where production numbers were prioritized over key safety equipment, and while everyone else was willing to suck it up for a couple of bad quarters, they pushed it and I'm sure it's indirectly resulted in further injuries and potentially deaths because of it.

hey wanted to be the “best” system, with zero safety considerations at any step other than what was basically forced upon them by the supplier so they wouldn’t completely back out. The company is so insanely reckless that I feel shame for ever wanting to work for them at one point

What does this remind me of... Oh yeah right, OceanGate

This is an absolutely bald-faced lie. Tesla absolutely does NOT market Autopilot as fully autonomous system. Autopilot is nothing other than lane-centering and adaptive cruise control with emergency braking, and that's it. There is zero ambiguity about it on the vehicle and in documentation. Plus, it specifically requires the driver to maintain control of the wheel.

You need to stop, drop, and roll or jump in the nearest pool before your pants burn you to a crisp.

Oh really? Is that why for years now, on the front page for Autopilot on Tesla's site, was the infamous "Paint it Black" demo, where in the first 10 seconds it says "The driver only there for legal reasons, the car is driving itself"? What do you think is going to stick in the mind of a potential buyer: that video of the car "driving itself" right on the Tesla website, or the generic 5 line page that you'll see in basically every single car with a satnav these days saying, "Please operate the car safely"?

Regardless of how much people like you love to get into the technicalities and differences between Autopilot and Full Self Driving and chime in with "ACKSHUALLY" and insert any number of the same tired responses about how autopilot works on aircraft or what it says in the documentation, it changes nothing about how they've shaped the public perception of their system and how people are going to attempt and use it.

Stop defending their shitty practices. Literally everyone else has figured out how to prevent people from abusing these systems, Tesla won't even bother, because people like you will step in and defend it every time for some fucking reason, and as a bonus it saves them money.

Autopilot is nothing other than lane-centering and adaptive cruise control with emergency braking, and that’s it.

When you put it that way, the term Autopilot does sound really misleading.

In have this product named Telephone. I absolutely do NOT market Telephone as a remote long distance voice chat system. Telephone is nothing other than a voice-recording and adaptive voice control with emergency saving features, and that’s it.

They literally named it "autopilot". Give me a break. You have zero business calling other people dishonest.

Well there have people accusing Tesla of advertising their cars as much more self driving then they are. Specifically Teals has been accused of false advertising because it is what you describe, but they sell it as a self driving car.

Completely separate systems, a (now) 15k price difference, again with zero ambiguity and ZERO advertising or instruction that allows anyone to enable the system "hands off."

The only people making claims that Tesla is advertising (they don't even have advertisements) are ignorant people regurgitating FUD they read on the internet.

Evert car review that mentions it advertise s it. Tesla mentions it on their web. The fact that people know about it means it has to be advertised somewhere. I never said it was free.

This is a bullshit argument and you know it. And nowhere on the Tesla website does it say Autopilot allows autonomous driving. Come on, man.

I am being serious. Many people believe that tesla have full self driving because of the name and how tesla and other people talk about it. Hence the talk of class action lawsuits against Tesla.

So some how people think they made full auto pilot cars.

People that have never been in a tesla, maybe, because they're morons. That does NOT equal TESLA advertising falsely, nor does anyone driving a Tesla have any reason to believe the car will completely drive itself on autopilot, because it literally tells you it doesn't. Source: I own two of them. The entire argument is bullshit and predicated on people unaffiliated with Tesla being morons.

And yet i just saw a stroy about tesla "fsd" full self driving. If tesla calls a feature full self driving then it sounds loke they are advertising a fully autonomous car.

"Full Self-Driving" for which you have to pay 15k, are told in ZERO uncertain terms that this is BETA software, and that you must maintain a hold on the steering wheel from the screen and speakers else it comes to a stop, and LITERALLY TRACKS YOUR EYES TO VERIFY YOU'RE LOOKING AT THE ROAD.

So again, morons that don't have any idea how a Tesla works, let alone has ever been in one, making shit up. NOT TESLA.

I wonder if there is any legal president for claiming its Beta stage to pass off liability

When all instructions tell you that this is, IN NO WAY, autonomous driving allowing you to take your hands off the wheel OR stop paying attention to the road? You bet your fucking ass there is a mountain of case law throwing out thousands of lawsuits.

There is literally not one bit of false fucking advertising involved in this entire story, and the more you attempt to argue there is, the more you show your ignorance.