Tesla driver killed in crash with Autopilot active, NHTSA investigating

&gt; In the blog post, Tesla reiterates that customers are required to agree that the system is in a &quot;public beta phase&quot; before they can use it<p>I absolutely disagree with this, and it should not be used as a &#x27;get out&#x27; clause from Tesla. If you work with non-technical people on technical issues on a day to day basis you&#x27;ll understand why - non-technical people literally don&#x27;t understand what stuff like this means. They&#x27;ll read it, then say &#x27;Oh but they installed it in my car anyway so it must be safe&#x27;, and use it anyway.

Tesla&#x27;s statement[1] provides some more details<p>&gt; What we know is that the vehicle was on a divided highway with Autopilot engaged when a tractor trailer drove across the highway perpendicular to the Model S. Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied.<p>Failing to detect the white side of a tractor against a brightly lit sky is something I can see camera&#x2F;image based sensors struggling with, but not LIDAR based sensors.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.teslamotors.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;tragic-loss" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.teslamotors.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;tragic-loss</a>

My sympathies to the people who built the systems that make Autopilot possible. Even knowing it was statistically bound to happen eventually, this has to weigh heavily from the &quot;damn, I should&#x27;ve thought of this once-in-a-130-m-miles corner case&quot; perspective.

A company&#x27;s &quot;public beta phase&quot; system named &quot;Autopilot&quot; just drove a customer head-first into a trailer and killed them, at least in part due to inadequate sensor hardware that seems unlikely a software update can remedy. Tesla really ought to take a step back and consider the damage they may do to their brand if they start killing customers and blaming the dead person for having trusted a Tesla product.

Oddly, the guy who was killed got a dash cam video of Autopilot avoiding another collision earlier this year <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theverge.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;6&#x2F;30&#x2F;12072634&#x2F;tesla-autopilot-crash-autonomous-mode-viral-video" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theverge.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;6&#x2F;30&#x2F;12072634&#x2F;tesla-autopilot-c...</a>

I wonder what the driver was doing when the vehicle crashed. Tesla says that the driver is ultimately responsible for controlling the vehicle but then provides a system that is likely result in the driver <i>not</i> paying attention--sleeping, reading, or otherwise being distracted. How can Tesla and the governments that license drivers resolve this situation?

&quot;This is the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles where Autopilot was activated,&quot; states a post on Tesla&#x27;s corporate website. &quot;Among all vehicles in the U.S., there is a fatality every 94 million miles. Worldwide, there is a fatality approximately every 60 million miles. It is important to emphasize that the NHTSA action is simply a preliminary evaluation to determine whether the system worked according to expectations.&quot;

discussion is here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12011419" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12011419</a>

Should we be calling the technology Autopilot? I feel like the name implies more autonomy than it provides inadvertently misleading people.

I can see why Volvo criticized Tesla for rolling out a system that&#x27;s not fully autonomous. If drivers are willfully distracted because they think the car will handle any situation, that&#x27;s a very dangerous place to be in. Though it&#x27;s not clear what the driver was doing in this situation, so it&#x27;s possible that this would have been a fatal crash in any other car without autopilot as well.

<i>Tesla reiterates that customers are required to agree that the system is in a &quot;public beta phase&quot; before they can use it</i><p>I&#x27;m happy to let you all beta test this one for me.

<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;jalopnik.com&#x2F;volvo-engineer-calls-out-tesla-for-dangerous-wannabe-au-1773519459" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;jalopnik.com&#x2F;volvo-engineer-calls-out-tesla-for-dange...</a>

So if I read it right the trailer merged from a Lane next to the Tesla? So the trucker had the Tesla in a blind spot? The article is vague.