I seriously wonder if we’d have this kind of news cycle if Tesla was a private company. I’ve been watching Tesla since 2016. And it just seems like clockwork: Stock price is high -> news about how dangerous autopilot is. One could almost think it was some reverse pump and dump scheme.<p>I’m all for questioning new technology. And I personally don’t mind the ups and downs. I’m just wondering how much of this kind of reporting we would still be seeing if all of the incentives offered by the stock market would go away.
I was an autopilot skeptic until I wasn’t. As a <i>user</i> of the system it’s 100% clear that it’s my responsibility to be able to take over at any time. Autopilot regularly restricts the places it will engage and speed it will operate at based on road conditions. The safety of autopilot concerns me a lot less than the safety of other drivers on the road, the majority of who seem to be using their phones any second they think they can steal while behind the wheel.<p>Autopilot also gets noticeably better every passing week or two that I’ve been using it. Just as one example it now alerts you and slows down when it sees an emergency vehicle on the side of the road. (To be clear I’m not commenting on the specific accidents pointed out in the article, only my experience using it and seeing the pace of improvement.)<p>On the other hand, Tesla’s history of how they have marketed autopilot to <i>buyers</i> seems downright misleading. It’s clear now that autopilot isn’t 100% autonomous, but I’d be pretty upset if I made a buying decision a couple of years ago based on the hyperbole coming from Elon Musk and on their website about what was supposedly right around the corner.
<a href="https://www.iihs.org/ratings/driver-death-rates-by-make-and-model" rel="nofollow">https://www.iihs.org/ratings/driver-death-rates-by-make-and-...</a><p>Anyone know of other good data sources for comparison?