this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
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[–] [email protected] 232 points 10 months ago (6 children)

The real crime is marketing the driver assist capability under the name autopilot when it is anything but that.

[–] [email protected] 184 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh no, it's even worse than that.

It's the CEO and other staff repeatedly speaking of the system as if it's basically fully capable and it's only for legal reasons why a driver is even required. Even saying that the car could drive from one side of the US to the other without driver interaction (only to not actually do that, of course).

It's the company never correcting people when they call it a self driving system.

It's the company saying they're ready for autonomous taxis and saying owner's cars will make money for them while they aren't driving it.

It's calling their software subscription Full Self Driving

It's honestly staggering to me that they're able to get away with this shit.

[–] [email protected] 89 points 10 months ago (7 children)

I love my Model 3, but everything you said is spot on. Autopilot is a great driver assist, but it is nowhere near autonomous driving. I was using it on the highway and was passing a truck on the left. The road veered left and the truck did as well, keeping in its lane the entire time. The car interpreted this as the truck merging over into my lane and slammed the brakes. Fortunately, I was able to figure out what went wrong and quickly accelerated myself so as to not become a hazard to the cars behind me.

Using Autopilot as anything more than a nice dynamic cruise control setting is putting your life, and other lives, in danger.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 10 months ago (9 children)

Holy shit. My car doing that once and I'd be a nervous wreck just thinking about using it again.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 10 months ago

I give teslas more room because I have been brake checked by them on empty roads before. These ghost brake problems are prevalent.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I have had the adaptive cruise control brake on multiple Hondas and Subarus in similar situations. Not like slamming on the brakes, but firm enough to confuse the hell out of me.

Every time it was confusing and now I just don't use it if the road is anything but open and clear.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Honda’s sensing system will read shadows from bridges as obstructions in the road that it needs to brake for. It’s easy enough to accelerate out of the slowdown, but I was surprised to find that there is apparently no radar check to see if the obstruction is real.

My current vehicle doesn’t have that issue, so either the programming has been improved or the vendor for the sensing systems is a different one (different vehicle make, so it’s entirely possible).

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

i barely trust the lane-keeping assistant in my friend's car. imagine going 70+km/h and suddenly the car decides to jerk the steering to the left/right because you weren't exactly in the middle of your lane.

fuck modern assistants IMO. i can use the steering wheel just fine, and people have been able to for a hundred years.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Considering that driving is (statistically) the most dangerous thing the average person does, I wouldn't really say that people use the steering wheel just fine.

It’s just that computers are currently worse at it than humans.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

agreed. if "autopilot" becomes a better driver than the average person, then it has a right to exist.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 10 months ago

I think the real crime is vehicular manslaughter, especially the SECOND one.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Tesla should be playing wrongful death suits every time autopilot kills someone. Their excuses don't excuse the blatant marketing that leads people to believe it's a self driving car.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

But you see that wasn't the vehicle's fault. It's been programmed perfectly. What happened was the fault of the pedestrians and driver for not properly predicting what the car would do.

maybe /s maybe not.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

no you see the issue is that the auto pilot stopped right before the accident so obviously it was entirely drivers fault, please don't check how much time was between it stopping and the accident

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago (7 children)

Do we need to go through what autopilot in a plane or boat actually does again?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (6 children)

It doesn't matter, Tesla cars are marketed to the public which isn't expected to know these things. To probably 90% of people "autopilot" means "drive automatically".

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If we do, then they shouldn't have picked a name that most people think does something it doesn't.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

It's a common misunderstanding that an autopilot system in an airplane does everything or even a lot of things. The most basic ones keep the wings level and nothing else. Of course Tesla is probably counting on that misconception to sell this feature, but actual pilots using any kind of autopilot are still on the hook to pay attention 100% of the time.

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[–] [email protected] 123 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The guy was going through a suburb at 75 mph blowing through stop lights. Ofcourse he has to pay, im surprised hes not getting jail time. This has nothing to do with the car, thats just gross negligence

[–] [email protected] 50 points 10 months ago (2 children)

My tesla doesn’t let me use autopilot or FSD if I set it over 5% of the posted speed limit. How is this guy going 75 in the burbs?

[–] [email protected] 43 points 10 months ago

I wonder if Tesla had this section of road mapped as freeway. Especially since it rolled through a red.

"Suburb" in LA is a very loose term

I would think that the guy is just lying, but Tesla would call that out REAL quick.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago

That is unfortunately a configurable option.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago

My interpretation of the title is "only has to pay...". 23K is nothing.

[–] [email protected] 120 points 10 months ago (2 children)

2 murders, 23 grand. The mafia charge more.

If you wanna kill somebody, use a car.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 10 months ago

The $11,500 "murder" add-on

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago

Involuntary manslaughter ≠ murder

[–] [email protected] 105 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Wow the value of a life I guess. I don’t really know what can come close to the value of a life, but this doesn’t seem like it.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 10 months ago (3 children)

What would be the value of life then? I’ll save you the answer: no matter how big the number you say, someone else will say bigger. Until it becomes priceless, which is the answer.

However death and accidental death isn’t always avoidable. And when we pin the fault on someone we cannot expect to say “priceless” is what they owe the victim’s family. So we assign an amount of money or time that hurts, and call it good.

Doesn’t mean life is worth that. And saying so doesn’t help anyone.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Sure but even looking a only the financial produce of one person for a family dwarfs the comical 23k here. And that’s not even looking at the emotional side of things. 23k is straight insulting imho.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago

Two people were killed, so you're really talking 11.5k.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Seeing as they were using the now being recalled Tesla auto pilot during the auto accident, it may not entirely be the drivers fault. This may be part of the rational behind the judgement.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Tesla should be out millions for this. The autopilot feature is a gimmick and not at all transparent. They're beta testing on the public and people are dying because of it. This is a corporate decision that needs to have corporate consequences over and above legal ones. People shouldn't just be getting minor fines, they should be going to prison and losing absolutely everything.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (3 children)

The U.S. uses the value of statistical life VSL. Here are the numbers from the Department of Transportation over the last 10 years or so.

So, it is interesting and egregious that the driver needs only pay $23K and Tesla pays nothing at all!

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[–] [email protected] 89 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If you want to kill someone in the US with little consequences, run them over with a car.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago (10 children)

Germany the same. Small fine, three month without license, that's it for killing a human being.

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 10 months ago (1 children)

For fuck's sake I doubt if that would cover funeral expenses.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Anyone else tired of beta testing Tesla’s garbage just by being outside on the roads near these vehicles?

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There's this saying about how if something is punishable by a fine, then it's only illegal for poor people.

I don't even have to finish this do I

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Finland's fine system at least tries: some fines scale based on the perp's monthly income.

Example: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/06/finnish-businessman-hit-with-121000-speeding-fine

I'm unshamedly proud of this. Apparently Switzerland has the same system.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

I love this

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Fines = legal for a price.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

Civil suit. He's already been proven guilty

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

You honor, I actually didn't wack anyone with this self actuating axe. I bought it and I told it to go chop wood. The people just happened to be too close to the axe. Yeah I was holding the axe but I wasn't actually putting any pressure. The tail was wagging the dog in other words.

Ok so $10,000.00. Fine? Oh alright I guess that'll teach me not to buy autonomous axes.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (6 children)

the problem here is the law. there should be actual consequences, not fines. jail time for murder.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

Well, he didn´t do anything ... /s

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