Lawsuits test Tesla claim that drivers are solely responsible for crashes

ylai@lemmy.ml to Technology@lemmy.world – 289 points –
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Autopilot “is not a self-driving technology and does not replace the driver,” Tesla said in response to a 2020 case filed in Florida. “The driver can and must still brake, accelerate and steer just as if the system is not engaged.”

Tesla's terminology is so confusing. If "Autopilot" isn't self-driving technology, does that mean it's different from "Full Self Driving"? And if so, is "Full Self Driving" also not a self-driving technology?

I heard Elon Musk call it: "Assisted full self driving". Which doesn't make any sense. LOL

its called "Full Self Driving (Supervised)" now

If it really was full self driving, it wouldn't need to be supervised

The term autopilot comes from aviation, where the only kind of problem resolution an autopilot does is turning itself off.

Other than that, it just flies from checkpoint to checkpoint.

If only we could implement similar testing protocols to the aviation version to validate it's safety!

A full NTSB investigation for every single crash? I'm all for it!

Depends on the autopilot. There are some that are as rudimentary as a "wing leveler." They only have control of the ailerons and can level the wings and maybe make turns. Other systems have control of all three major control axes and are integrated with the navigation systems so they can do things like climb to an altitude and level off, turn to a heading, or even fly holds and approaches.

They do require training on the part of the pilot to use in flight.

Yeah, but even the best ones would happily crash into a mountain if the pilots don't set their altimeters properly (and ignore the terrain warnings).

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Autopilot is a more basic driver assist system than FSD. FSD is what will eventually become what the name suggests but it's obviously not there yet and everyone knows this. It's just the name of the system.

Those are really crappy names. How about "driver assist" and "supervised self driving"? Drop the "supervised" once they're ready to market it as real self driving.

FSD is called Full Self-Driving (Supervised) nowdays.

Autopilot can be seen as a misleading term but that has more to do with people not understanding what autopilot on airplanes actually does which is quite similar to what it does on Teslas aswell.

Autopilot isn't being marketed to aviation enthusiasts nor is it a plane so it doesn't matter how autopilot in planes works it matters what the perception is. They could have used a more appropriate term like advanced cruise control

FSD is just a lie because its a description of a product they intend to develop not something that exists on the car you are buying now

What's your definition of self-driving system then if the current one doesn't qualify?

The car being able to get to their destination using the public road network without a single person in it, while fully complying with the law and road safety.

Well, the current version of FSD can do that. It's just not approved for unsupervised driving (level 3) so that's why the driver still needs to be there to be ready to take over at any moment. The current version of it near-perfectly mimics a human driver. I highly recommend to check reviews on YouTube for the version 12. It's quite impressive.

Yes, it can do that. Occasionally. And then it'll randomly fail in the stupidest ways.

And i've actually looked at some Tesla FSD reviews, and every review seems to be of a "2 steps forward, 2 steps back" kind. Look at all these things that improved, and then mentioning all the things that used to work that are now broken again. (of course with a lot more focus on the things that have improved, since hype pays).

I'm honestly wondering how self driving will evolve, it seems we've landed in the really hard last 10% of getting there, and it's mostly come to a stand still.

The one where Tesla is responsible if there is an accident (but this user blocks people critical of Tesla, so probably won't see this message).

Specifically Auto Pilot is lane keep and traffic aware cruise control (it will slow down if you're going faster than the car in front) FSD adds auto lane changes (it can do it by itself or the driver can initiate with the turn signals), makes turns necessary to follow navigation. It does a pretty decent job on freeways.

That they are working on now is getting FSD to work better on city streets and secondary highways

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