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.

  • sugartits@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The second trial, set for early October in a Florida state court, arose out of a 2019 crash north of Miami where owner Stephen Banner’s Model 3 drove under the trailer of an 18-wheeler big rig truck that had pulled into the road, shearing off the Tesla’s roof and killing Banner. Autopilot failed to brake, steer or do anything to avoid the collision, according to the lawsuit filed by Banner’s wife.

    Is this the guy who was literally paying no attention to the road at all and was watching a movie whilst the car was in motion?

    I legit can’t find information on it now as every result I can find online is word for word identical to that small snippet. Such is modern journalism.

    I know people like to get a hard on with the word “autopilot”, but even real pilots with real autopilot still need to “keep an eye on things” when the system is engaged. This is why we have two humans in the cockpit on those big commercial jets.

    • ephemeral_gibbon@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      The way musk marketed it was as a “self driving” feature, not a driving assist. Yes with all current smart assists you need to be carefully watching what it’s doing, but that’s not what it was made out to be. Because of that I’d still say tesla is responsible.

      • CmdrShepard
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        1 year ago

        I think you’re referring to FSD beta and not Autopilot. One is supposed to be the self driving feature at some point while the other is simply lane keeping/cruise control. FSD wasn’t even available when this crash happened.

        • ephemeral_gibbon@aussie.zone
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          1 year ago

          No I was referring to autopilot, just look at the name of it. It’s I know it’s not capable of self driving (and neither is the even more absurd name of “full self driving”) but to your average person it intentionally sounds as if the car is driving itself instead of it being a driving assist.

          • CmdrShepard
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            1 year ago

            No you were referring to what you think Tesla said about Autopilot and I pointed out that you were mistaken.

            I think it sounds like autopilot in a plane or ship, where it maintains course but still needs a pilot sitting at the controls. Regardless of what you think it is or isn’t, it’s your duty as a driver to understand the capabilities of the two ton machine that you’re voluntarily operating.

      • Eager Eagle@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Tesla’s Autopilot is driving assistance. I don’t know where you saw Musk marketing it as a self driving feature. Hell, even for the misnomer “full self driving” they note:

        The currently enabled features require a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment.

        • pup_atlas@pawb.social
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          1 year ago

          The feature is called “Autopilot”, meaning that the car automatically pilots itself, rather than using a human pilot. The definition of autopilot is literally “a device for keeping an aircraft or other vehicle on a set course without the intervention of the pilot.” I’m not sure how he could have more explicitly misrepresented the product.

          • Eager Eagle@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            meaning that the car automatically pilots itself, rather than using a human pilot

            No it doesn’t. Even an airplane autopilot only maintain the course set by the pilot and it’s not capable of making decisions and navigating autonomously.

            All technologies in publicly sold vehicles today and in recent years are of driving assistance and require driver’s attention. Anybody using the tech without paying attention is being negligent.

            • pup_atlas@pawb.social
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              1 year ago

              Autopilot is capable of navigating though, and it does make decisions like when to merge and when to execute a turn, by design. I don’t think it’s adequately equipped to make those decisions, but by design, it does. They even advertise it on their official YouTube channel, with a clip of them just plugging in a destination and letting the car get them there in their video. Tesla is responsible for advertising they do, and claims they make of their product that simply aren’t true.

                • pup_atlas@pawb.social
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                  1 year ago

                  It is two different modes of the same system, one just has more features enabled than the other. You also can’t tell if the driver is paying attention, as they are mostly out of frame. Even if they are, their hands are entirely off the wheel, and it’s unlikely that they would be able to react in time to prevent an accident even if they are paying attention.

            • Auli@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              Autopilot is cable of basically ying the plane itself. A human is there for when shit goes wrong.

              • candybrie@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Like if another plane is nearby? It’s not exactly just “shit going wrong.” Autopilot doesn’t follow TCAS or ATC commands for instance.

                So to be similar, driver autopilot only needs to work while there are no other cars that might be in your path. Which is why we’ve had some degree of plane autopilot for nearly a century and are just starting to get some degree of car autopilot–the assumption that no cars might be in your path is pretty much always false.

              • Eager Eagle@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Only if you ignore traffic. Autopilot doesn’t take in ATC directions. But it’s not a useful comparison, air traffic and navigation is much simpler compared to ground.

      • jimbolauski@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Self driving is not a defined standard, it is a buzz word like increase your vitality. The SAE standards for autonomous vehicles do not have a self driving category

    • Auli@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      There are also two pilots. Because they know people are people. And don’t brand it a self driving and full self driving then.

      • dustyData@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It sends shivers down my spine to think that airlines want to eliminate the co-piloting requirement in order to reduce costs. It would be increasingly stressful for the pilots, increasing turn-over, burnout and the risk of errors during flights. I would never fly with an airline that makes a single pilot take the brunt of a flight longer than 1 hour. Hell, even quality long-distance bus travel and truck hauling companies have drivers work in tandem, switching every so many hours.