News, Tesla’s Autopilot Has Been Linked to Multiple Deaths. Here’s an Alternative.: detailed suggestions and opinions about Tesla’s Autopilot Has Been Linked to Multiple Deaths. Here’s an Alternative..
If you want to play Candy Crush while getting from point A to point B, consider public transit.
So-called “self-driving” Teslas keep crashing. During a four-month period this year, 11 people died in vehicle crashes involving automated driving systems in the United States, according to new government data reported by the Associated Press. Ten of the wrecks involved Teslas. While it’s not definitive whether the technology itself was to blame, the crashes suggest that Elon Musk’s Autopilot technology is far from foolproof.
Luckily, there’s a simple solution: Take the bus. The best autopilot technology in the country is public transportation.
If you want to play Candy Crush while en route to your destination, consider a train. If you want to read an article while listening to an album, consider the unique experience of a trolly or a ferry. And if it bugs you that you cannot do any of these things—because you live in a country with depleted public transit infrastructure—that can be fixed without having to invent anything particularly new. We just need to build.
Elon Musk would like you to think that you can turn on a Tesla, tune in, and drop out. In 2016, he claimed that Tesla’s autopilot system would drive “probably better than a person right now.” Last week, he touted a $15,000 “Full Self-Driving” software add-on, saying, “The car will be able to take you from your home to your work, your friend’s house, the grocery store without you touching the wheel.”
The language on Tesla’s website is more realistic. “Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Capability are intended for use with a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment,” it says. “While these features are designed to become more capable over time, the currently enabled features do not make the vehicle autonomous.”
Anecdotally, though, plenty of Tesla drivers do take Autopilot as carte blanche to put their feet up. In 2018, an Apple engineer who appeared to be playing a video game on his phone died when his Tesla Model X hit a concrete barrier in California at 71 miles per hour. In 2019, a Tesla Model S operating on Autopilot crashed into a parked car and killed a 22-year-old woman after its operator leaned over to pick up the cellphone he had dropped. In 2020, a North Carolina driver was reportedly watching a movie on his phone when his Tesla crashed into a state trooper’s vehicle.
Multiple state and federal agencies are concerned. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission was conducting a civil investigation into Tesla executives’ statements about Autopilot’s safety. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into Tesla’s claims about Autopilot, according to a Reuters report. And why not throw in a California Department of Motor Vehicles false advertising lawsuit for good measure?
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