People Keep Spotting Teslas With Snoozing Drivers On the Freeway (arstechnica.com) 213
"In the last week, two different people have captured video of Tesla vehicles traveling down a freeway with an apparently sleeping driver behind the wheel," writes Ars Technica.
A reader shares their report: Both incidents happened in California. Last week, local television stations in Los Angeles aired footage from viewer Shawn Miladinovich of a Tesla vehicle driving on LA's 405 freeway. The driver "was just fully sleeping, eyes were shut, hands nowhere near the steering wheel," said Miladinovich, who was a passenger in a nearby car, in an interview with NBC Channel 4. Miladinovich said he saw the vehicle twice, about 30 minutes apart, as both cars traveled along the 405 freeway. The driver appeared to be asleep both times...
Another video of an apparently sleeping Tesla driver was posted to Reddit over the weekend -- this one from the San Francisco Bay Area. The Reddit user who posted the video, MiloWee, said that she tried "several times" to wake him up by honking. "It worked, but he fell back asleep," she wrote....
Last month, police in the Netherlands pulled over a Tesla driver who appeared to be asleep and intoxicated. Another video posted in January appeared to show Tesla drivers asleep at the wheel. In an incident last November, it took police in Silicon Valley seven miles to pull over a Tesla car with an apparently sleeping driver. He was arrested for driving under the influence. Another driver in early 2018 was discovered passed out behind the wheel of his stopped Tesla vehicle on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the man "attempted to reassure arresting CHP officers onsite that the car was 'on autopilot.'"
A reader shares their report: Both incidents happened in California. Last week, local television stations in Los Angeles aired footage from viewer Shawn Miladinovich of a Tesla vehicle driving on LA's 405 freeway. The driver "was just fully sleeping, eyes were shut, hands nowhere near the steering wheel," said Miladinovich, who was a passenger in a nearby car, in an interview with NBC Channel 4. Miladinovich said he saw the vehicle twice, about 30 minutes apart, as both cars traveled along the 405 freeway. The driver appeared to be asleep both times...
Another video of an apparently sleeping Tesla driver was posted to Reddit over the weekend -- this one from the San Francisco Bay Area. The Reddit user who posted the video, MiloWee, said that she tried "several times" to wake him up by honking. "It worked, but he fell back asleep," she wrote....
Last month, police in the Netherlands pulled over a Tesla driver who appeared to be asleep and intoxicated. Another video posted in January appeared to show Tesla drivers asleep at the wheel. In an incident last November, it took police in Silicon Valley seven miles to pull over a Tesla car with an apparently sleeping driver. He was arrested for driving under the influence. Another driver in early 2018 was discovered passed out behind the wheel of his stopped Tesla vehicle on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the man "attempted to reassure arresting CHP officers onsite that the car was 'on autopilot.'"
This...is why new technology doesn't get anywhere (Score:5, Insightful)
...because humanity is too stupid to read the directions. The 'autopilot' in the Tesla is meant to assist the AWARE driver in lane control and keeping up with traffic, not driving while they are too busy sleeping. Cool technology seems to always die when people won't use it properly, so it ends up getting banned or abandoned as 'too dangerous' for regular use.
Re:This...is why new technology doesn't get anywhe (Score:5, Insightful)
I am sure that sitting and watching the car drive itself is incredibly boring. I know that I could never use such technology because if I had to be aware, but not have anything to do for 30 minutes, I would get bored and start to daydream. With a normal car I always have something to do, since the car would not follow the road otherwise and this keeps my attention on the road.
Re:This...is why new technology doesn't get anywhe (Score:5, Funny)
Hell, that's one of the reasons I only buy and drive cars with a manual transmission....keeps you alert and part of the driving experience.
But it does take a bit of coordination to be able to drive, shift, twiddle with the radio, smoke a cigarette and not spill your beer.
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If you're using your transmission on the highway you're doing it wrong. ... Or driving in Chicago.
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Well, if on 2 lane highway, you often downshift before passing to accelerate a bit faster when needed.
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I was varying my speed by up to 40mph on the 'highway' this morning due to traffic. Rarely used my brakes but my car definitely prefers to be in different gears for such different speeds.
Dead man's switch (Score:3)
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Well, another good thing to add would be obeying the law to pull over and stop for police car lights under autopilot.
Re:Dead man's switch (Score:4, Informative)
Tesla's Autopilot does have a 'dead man switch' - it require the driver to hold onto the steering wheel and to respond to prompts every few minutes by wiggling the steering wheel or using a control on the steering wheel. And if you don't, the car will start beeping to wake you up, and displaying alerts, and then will pull over to the right and park, after which it locks out autopilot so you have to drive manually. There were some tricks to try to defeat the driver check, but Tesla enhanced their checks so that they don't work any more. With determined effort a driver could probably ignore the warnings and keep autopilot active without actually being in control of the car, but there's no way to keep someone sufficiently determined to die from doing so.
There's some risk that people might fall asleep while driving on Autopilot more that driving manually, but when the driver stops responding the car should just pull over and park. If the driver went out of his way to defeat the safeties, which Tesla makes increasingly hard, well, they asked for trouble and they got it.
On the flip side, we know that people fall asleep while driving non-Autopilot cars, and they die and kill others. And it's shockingly common:
"An estimated 1 in 25 adult drivers (aged 18 years or older) report having fallen asleep while driving in the previous 30 days. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that drowsy driving was responsible for 72,000 crashes, 44,000 injuries, and 800 deaths in 2013." https://www.cdc.gov/features/d... [cdc.gov]
So the question, IMO, is given how often people fall asleep while driving, wouldn't you rather have them in a car that can follow lanes safely, then pull over and park?
Re:This...is why new technology doesn't get anywhe (Score:5, Insightful)
A sensible system would keep an eye on the driver's awareness and stop completely if the driver is not aware, like a dead man switch.
Re:This...is why new technology doesn't get anywhe (Score:5, Funny)
on the freeway?
better to keep going and either increase the volume on a "wake up you twat" message, or announce that it is about to re-route itself to the nearest police station and park itsef in the spot marked "sheriff", should the driver not cancel the instruction within 10 minutes. Some nice men can then have a surprise waiting for the drive when he wakes up.
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Thats what a normal car would do if the driver took his foot off the throttle.
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Doesn't mean it's a good idea. The Nissan system, for example, tries to wake you up with loud noises, blasting you with cold air from the AC and occasional sharp jolts from braking.
The Tesla Model 3 does actually have an internal camera that can see the driver, but it's not used for anything.
Re: This...is why new technology doesn't get anywh (Score:5, Interesting)
They do, by default. You have to touch the wheel every 30 seconds or couple minutes or something to keep it engaged or it pulls over and stops. It's not tricky to bypass or trick it in various ways though which a couple Tesla owner friends of mine have done (though just to remove the nag, not to sleep.) You could still argue that they make it too easy to defeat
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Yeah apparently too easy to defeat.
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The Model 3 has an internal camera that could check if the driver is paying attention. That's what other manufacturers do, use a bit of gaze tracking (with IR to see through sunglasses) to make sure you are looking ahead.
Re:This...is why new technology doesn't get anywhe (Score:4, Insightful)
I do place some blame on Tesla for naming it 'autopilot.' The name implies abilities it does not have, and invites overestimation.
Re:This...is why new technology doesn't get anywhe (Score:4, Insightful)
I do place some blame on Tesla for naming it 'autopilot.' The name implies abilities it does not have, and invites overestimation.
It's more a misunderstanding by the general public of what an "autopilot" is. From the dictionary definition:
"a device for keeping an aircraft on a set course without the intervention of the pilot."
In a plane, a pilot or co-pilot is still required to be at the controls and monitoring the auto-pilot at all times. And in the event of a situation that the auto-pilot cannot handle, like extreme turbulence, it will automatically disengage and alert the (co)pilot to take over - just like a Tesla's autopilot does.
I bet people w/ Teslas would wise up real quick if a one strike law was put in place - get caught sleeping while your car is on auto-pilot and lose your license for 6 months.
Re: This...is why new technology doesn't get anywh (Score:2)
Depends on the plane's manufacturer. With Airbus, the autopilot has been dominant for a while. In the event of a pilot override, the pilot has to keep fighting the system. Which doesn't allow a pilot to outright take over and manouver the plane. The pilots are just for show on those ones. All of the commersial jet liners have been able
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The autopilot is easily overrideen in any Airbus.
AP DISENGAGEMENT
AP1 or 2 disengages when:
The pilot presses the takeover pushbutton on the sidestick.
The pilot presses the corresponding AP pushbutton on the FCU.
The pilot pushes on the sidestick harder than a certain threshold or moves on the rudder pedals above a threshold.
The pilot moves the pitch trim wheel beyond a certain threshold.
The other AP is engaged, except when localizer/glideslope modes are armed or engaged, or when the rollout or go-around mode
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I bet people w/ Teslas would wise up real quick if a one strike law was put in place - get caught sleeping while your car is on auto-pilot and lose your license for 6 months.
Better, you have to go get a physical to see why you're passing out uncontrollably, and insurance won't pay for it. That provides for the suspension and also catches the people who are legitimately passing out while driving, and gets them in to the doctor's office, so they hopefully get help and don't do it again.
Re: This...is why new technology doesn't get anywh (Score:2)
I feel the same way about drivers who have their fog lights on in conditions that don't require them. They should be forced to present an eye test to the police proving they don't have cataracts.
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I feel the same way about drivers who have their fog lights on in conditions that don't require them.
Most cars only have one fog light, if any. The fog light is the white or amber steady light in the back. Sometimes they have auxiliary driving lights, though, those are the ones mounted in the front. In the USA it is always illegal to drive with only the supplementary lights. I personally drive with my headlights on in all conditions. And then of course there's daytime running lights, inside the headlights. They're mandated in Canada. Sometimes they just use the headlights for DRLs.
IME most headlights are c
Re:This...is why new technology doesn't get anywhe (Score:4, Informative)
It's more a misunderstanding by the general public of what an "autopilot" is. From the dictionary definition
It is the other way around: A word means what the people using it understand it to mean, no matter if the intent or historical meaning was different. A dictionary does not *define* the meaning of a word, it merely documents its *observed* meaning.
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Oh for fuck's sake. Yes, a pilot should be at the controls all the time. Yes, a pilot should be watching out of the windows to make sure the skies are clear of other traffic.
But yes, an autopilot can navigate an aircraft through changes in course and altitude, and some can also automate landing if desired.
https://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/2... [cnbc.com]
While I wouldn't expect a car autopilot to manage altitude changes it's also very common for pilots to release aircraft controls for substantial periods of times while the
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not manufacturing, but sales (Score:2)
People are not necessarily blaming the manufacturing company. They could be blaming the sales company - oh wait, Tesla has made sure that they are mostly the same company ? Never mind.
Car salesmen, as we all know, are an incredibly honest bunch of folks who would not take advantage of the public perception of "autopilot". Let alone suggest to the buyer that autopilot would drive the car while the buyer could catch up with sleep. Being supremely honest, car salesmen would give such a promise in writing if ev
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When I bought my Tesla, not only did the salesperson make very clear that AutoPilot was a driver assist system and that the driver has to remain alert and is responsible for the car's safety, but the car displays warnings to that effect when you engage autopilot. If someone ignores what they're told, and warnings displayed repeatedly, then that's their fault.
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Eh, you're jumping to conclusions without enough data to support them.
Are people more or less likely to fall asleep in a Tesla? Of the people who fall asleep, are they more or less likely to have an accident?
There's a solid chance that the only real difference between Tesla and non-Tesla drivers is that the ones falling asleep in Teslas live to tell about it and are on the road a lot longer so they're noticed. The ones not in a Tesla are in the ditch a few seconds after falling asleep.
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On the other hand:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that drowsy driving was responsible for 72,000 crashes, 44,000 injuries, and 800 deaths in 2013.
But holy hell: a small handful of drivers are spotted asleep at the wheel of their semi-autonomous cars (safely, mind you), and there's suddenly a question about the viability of self-driving cars, or whether Tesla is misleading with their name, or whatever particular tempest we deign to brew up in our teacup.
The number of these incidents effectively rounds to zero among the millions of cars on the road every day. It's just the novelty of it that they *didn't* crash on the side of the roa
Need more data (Score:2)
However, with semi-automatic driving there are a lot more variables: can the system keep you safe long enough for you to wake up? if the system fails d
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Absolutely, I agree that more data is needed. Also, there's probably a tendency to overly rely on the car's features, making it a bit more likely for someone to fall asleep in the first place when they're not engaged in driving.
Even with all that, you simply have to look at the ridiculously large number of people injured and killed due to falling sleep at the wheel, and it seems just as silly to leap in the *other* direction as well. We have plenty of data to prove that humans get into lots of accidents t
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However, whether it makes them any safer is less clear. If you fall asleep in a standard car you presumably come off the road at the next bend which, on a dual carriageway means you either end up in the ditch or hit the crash barriers in the middle.
There's plenty of highways without dividers, but with speed limits of 65 in each direction. They have substantial center medians, but the medians seem about as like to dip as to rise, so a driver can wind up going right through it and into oncoming traffic. This does in fact happen somewhat regularly, so we know it's a real problem.
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You could have used "fanbois" instead of "faggots" and made a legitimate point. But instead you had to shit your pants in public. Moron.
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What if every Anonymous Coward is the same insane person?
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Just the fatal crashes that occurred as a result.
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It was used in boats and ships long before planes. The autopilot will keep the vessel on a straight line bearing. In the original implementation, still widely used, this is a simple mechanical feedback system which moves the rudder. In both these cases, sea and air, the "automatic pilot" is doing little more than keeping to a straight-line bearing.
Tesla is using the term as though it's some complex and capable system, and people using Teslas are making the assumption that it's sophisticated. But the def
Re:This...is why new technology doesn't get anywhe (Score:5, Insightful)
That's why it is called "autopilot" and not something more honest.
Autopilot IS the honest name.
It was named as a reference to aircraft autopilots, which require the pilot remain aware and mentally engaged with the situation. The autopilot is an assist to relieve the pilot of having to manually control altitude and heading. It does not relieve the pilot of the obligation to pay attention at all times. In fact, the pilot must constantly monitor the autopilot's actions. In that respect, the "autopilot" name was aptly chosen. In both cases, the vehicle's operator must pay attention.
Tesla's mistake wasn't the name, it was in assuming the average person isn't a drooling imbecile.
However, Tesla at least provides instructions upon vehicle purchase about what an autopilot is, and that you must pay attention while using it.
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Autopilots in airplanes are misnamed because they are at best semiautomatic,
Airplanes are easier to design for because there are fewer things to hit in the air. A concept which works mostly in an aircraft can not be applied to a surface vehicle.
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Autopilots - even the old ones from the 1970s - actually can fly patterns. And since the introduction of the flight management system in the 1980s they can also fly a flight plan automatically.
Re: This...is why new technology doesn't get anywh (Score:5, Interesting)
Boats have autopilot.
Oddly, airplane autopilot seems to predate boat/ship autopilot. I'd have thought it was the other way, too.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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Comes with "Autopilot" but is isn't auto pilot (Score:2, Insightful)
Tesla drivers are being used as beta testers for this system. If some of them die or if they kill other people it is ok apparently.
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His shit Ford Focus is indeed shit but it will also require him to pay fucking attention and not fall asleep at the wheel.
If he drives himself into a wall that's a personal choice, unlike a Tesla which will merrily decapitate him if a lorry crosses the road.
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Human drivers do "truck under-runs" quite often, because, particularly in the US, if you're on a long drive, following the road, you can follow the road right under the truck without noticing the truck, because the raised body isn't obscuring the road. This happens most often at twilight and in inclement weather. In most countries trucks are required to have side walls that stick down, with highly visible markings, which dramatically decreases truck underruns.
Collisions between cars and trucks are particula
Does anyone believe this? (Score:5, Insightful)
From the article:
"We weren't able to independently validate either of the videos, so it's possible they're pranks."
OTOH it isn't surprising. People do stupid things like texting, putting on makeup, etc.
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Start from the assumption that people who post videos are looking for attention and let that inform you.
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It doesn't even have to be faked, just some moron who can't tell a sleeping person from someone who isn't moving much because they just have to have their hands on the wheel and not actively turn in 100% of the time.
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Except you don't need to. There are already verified events if this happening so to assume it's a prank is pointless. We covered previously the actions a police officer took to pull over a Tesla on autopilot with a sleeping driver.
I wouldn't worry (Score:2)
This is a short-term problem and will eventually take care of itself as more of these Teslas plow into the sides of eighteen-wheelers.
On a side note - not that this was any smarter, but way back in the pre-pre-internet days, my brother and I used to have fun, while on long straight roads, trying to freak out other drivers by pretending to be asleep behind the wheel. You can close your eyes about 3/4 of the way and still see reasonably well (straight ahead, anyway) while appearing to an observer to have them
Re: I wouldn't worry (Score:2, Insightful)
The other drivers probably knew exactly what you two were doing and thought you were behaving like retards.
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Yeah, well - there are many things I did as a teenager which, if I saw someone doing the exact same thing now, my first reaction would definitely be "that person is an idiot".
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You can close your eyes about 3/4 of the way and still see reasonably well (straight ahead, anyway) while appearing to an observer to have them completely closed.
Or you can be like me, being extremely Chinese so nobody can tell if I was squinting or sleeping ;)
Cars need to be smarter than people (Score:3, Insightful)
Until we have full Level 5 autonomy (cars that can go anywhere with zero need, ever, for human input), then at least some jackasses will make "autopilot"-equipped vehicles more dangerous than plain old human piloted ones.
Yes, some drivers are fucking idiots who shouldn't even have a driver's license. But part of the blame belongs to car companies pushing these technologies and strongly implying they're far more capable than they are. And government regulators letting these things on the road aren't blameless, either.
It scares me to think what will happen when many more of these vehicles are on the road, sharing public space with human drivers. If you think dodging the cell phone using idiots now is a pain in the ass, wait until we're contending with them AND the autopilot cretins.
We likely will get to full Level 5 autonomy, but not in anywhere near the time frame asshats like Musk are claiming. His prediction that Tesla will have a million "robotaxis" on the road by the end of 2020 shows just how deranged he is.
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then at least some jackasses will make "autopilot"-equipped vehicles more dangerous than plain old human piloted ones.
You'll be surprised what "better idiots" can do even without autopilots.
It doesn't take much to remove enough better idiots to cancel out the jackasses.
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We likely will get to full Level 5 autonomy, but not in anywhere near the time frame asshats like Musk are claiming. His prediction that Tesla will have a million "robotaxis" on the road by the end of 2020 shows just how deranged he is.
There was an interesting observation on the new Top Gear (UK) yesterday - Elon Musk isn't an idiot, he's built battery factories because he knows very well that when the big automakers of the world finally decide to make proper electric vehicles (including automation) then they'll completely destroy Tesla almost overnight. It's not a long term viable business, but that's fine because making cars is not the long term goal. It's all about making a demand for electric vehicles whilst ensuring he owns the facto
Good Selling Point (Score:2)
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Amphetamines.
Shocker .. give the driver less to do and .. (Score:2)
When people are given less to do they get bored and don't pay attention. I think this is one of those things where there is a limit. Cruise control seems to be enough interaction but as cars do more things our minds may wander. Keeping the car at speed AND in the lane is fine for me on a short drive. I'm not sure I would like it on a long drive.
I would much prefer the car be fully self driving over me having to monitor it.
People with their cell phones is a bigger issue (Score:5, Insightful)
At least the Tesla will most likely brake the car if the traffic in front slows.
The self-righteous person with their cell phone out taking videos of the sleeping Tesla driver is much more of a menace to traffic.
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Agree, this illegal, unsactioned testing of Autopilot is actually really good for technology and for safety. They would never get away with permission to just actively test such a dangerous feature, but by people just being typical fallible humans who make mistakes, we can leave the drunk or exhausted drivers liable while continuing to build justified trust in the technology.
Imagine this continues, to the point where a Tesla operated by a comatose drunk person is actually safer than a typical car. Except fo
Beep beep beep (Score:2)
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Unfortunately, it's possible to trick Autopilot into thinking that the driver is holding the wheel when actually not holding the wheel. This also means that falling asleep wasn't really an accident -- the driver was deliberately not aware.
I have seen people sleep while driving (Score:2)
better this and falling asleep at the wheel of a (Score:2)
non-autopilot car.
in the 70's I'd hitch-hike on US1 and one of the rides I got was a guy who was thankful to have another in the car as he was driving home after a late-night shift and apparently a long drive. Sometime later there was a car accident and the driver went off the road and airborne and literally lost his head, The car was a 240Z and completely destroyed. It was the same guy.
Listen for the road trolls (Score:2)
They will be people cruising by in the adjacent lane who will give the snoozers a blast with 200-dB air horns.
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They will be people cruising by in the adjacent lane who will give the snoozers a blast with 200-dB air horns.
Oh wow, I had never before considered the idea of directional horns, but now I want them on the bus.
Why only Tesla? (Score:2)
Can we get a Slashdot story about all the people that nod off at the wheel in every other make for the last 60 years or so? Seems like if you nod off with a Tesla on autopilot, you are far less likely to kill someone else...
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Because the implication is that multiple people are apparently CHOOSING to fall asleep BECAUSE their car is a Tesla so can still drive them.
Yes people inadvertently fall asleep in other cars but Nobody seemingly chooses to fall alseep in them because the consequences are far more obvious, Mostly thanks to willfully misleading advertising that Tesla is still perpetrating.
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So you're happy sharing the skies or flying inside a plane with a pilot who falls asleep, are you?
They have systems to prevent instantaneous death in such instances as well, in a much more important scenario. That's okay, is it?
They are sleep-driving! (Score:2)
Don't wake them up, they'll take control of the car and kill somebody or themselves.
Just let the car drive them to their garage at home, the police can pick them up there.
so many stupid comments (Score:3)
This thread is full of people commenting on a system they never tried and running with the FUD mill. Here is a few things, you are missing:
1) The name autopilot, do drivers really think their car can drive fully autonomously based on the naming? No, on one hand the system will not allow you to and on the other hand, the system is not good enough that you would survive your first day if you thought that.
2) The autopilot system will not allow someone to fall asleep at the wheel and keep going. Lots of people fall asleep while driving every day. Not just Tesla owners. The difference is that if you have autopilot on, you will likely not die. Instead the car will do a number of things to wake you, including making noises that only someone dead drunk could ignore. Or someone really unwell. If that does not work, the car will turn on the warning signals and slowly come to a stop. It will also active the SOS function. Soon after the car will be visited by police and medical help. Apparently this was what happened in one of the described cases. The system working as designed.
3) It is possible to install devices that cheat the system. Never heard about anyone stupid enough to do so. More likely these guys are not really sleeping, but they may be driving with closed eyes. Which is also stupid. People do stupid things. Even with other car brands than Tesla. Yea they know it is stupid. Apparently many of them are even drunk. Newsflash: people drive while drunk on other brands than Tesla too. It is just that if you got a Tesla, letting the autopilot do the driving might be the more safe option. The system is not ready for that yet and these people deserve the sentence they will get from doing that shit.
4) Autopilot is not just lane assist + traffic aware cruise control. The original might have been, but the current version is much evolved. The most obvious features are navigate on autopilot, which will change lanes automatically based on traffic conditions and take the exists for you. But even the cruise control is much more advanced in the implementation, because it understands the road ahead and is not just blindly following the car just in front of you.
5) Did the autopilot kill a number of people? Did lane assist from VW? Do you seriously believe nobody driving a VW has crashed and died while lane assist was active? And your only argument is that VW did not name their system "autopilot"? Autopilot will not be killing you if you are paying attention and it might very well save you. In all the public known cases of crashes with autopilot active, the same accident could happen without autopilot. Yes there are people who watch movies while driving in cars without autopilot, or - shocking - people that text for 10 seconds and thereby miss a trailer tractor going out in front of them.
The main difference is that lane assist in my VW will simply disengage and the let the car crash. Compare to autopilot which will stop the car safely and call for help. Also the traffic aware cruise control in the VW will happily crash into stationary cars because it only knows how to follow cars that are actually moving. Compare to autopilot which is not just a radar based system, but has sensor fusion, so the radar data can be combined with information from the cameras. Autopilot always stops.
6) Is it really hard to pay attention when the car is almost driving itself? No, it isn't. In fact I find it much easier to stay alert. You get less tired driving this way. It is relaxing but in a good way. There is a scientific study of Tesla drivers with autopilot that backs this finding.
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> The autopilot system will not allow someone to fall asleep at the wheel and keep going. ....And yet... multiple police reports say they did.
It isn't the drivers that are unaware. (Score:2)
Amazing to me that there are about 15 people posing in this thread that fully get behind some or all of the following statements.
Because Telsa named their feature autopilot no driver anywhere is responsible for mis-using it. It is Elon's fault.
Nobody ever falls asleep behind the wheel in any other make or model of car except for Tesla no matter what features it has.
Because I shot someone with a gun I should not be held responsible because the gun manufacturer should have realized that guns are absolu
It is infact believable in SF (Score:2)
Because the horrible, disgusting place is so overloaded with people, that they think it's entirely normal to drive 70 to 150 minutes EACH WAY to work.
I know if I was driving that far each day, I would consider a nap in a vehicle too. As utterly stupid as it is, that place spawns this kind of stuff.
Think this is bad? Just wait. (Score:2)
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You can hardly blame them [youtu.be] though.
The 405? (Score:2)
In his defense, the car was probably going 10 MPH.
Die in your sleep... (Score:2)
At least Tesla respects our right to die in our sleep.
good thing (Score:2)
This is actually a very good, re-assuring thing.
If you've ever driven against your will in an "I'm not really fit for driving" situation, you understand what a big step forward this is. People do fall asleep at the steering wheel, and in most cases what immediately follows is an accident.
Here's the thing: Yes, now sitting in front of your computer you understand and think clearly. But when you are in a situation, you will not and you will drive despite it being unsafe and you being very much too tired - but
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Agreed. It would be nice if police had access to a "clicker" where they can point and instruct the car to safely pull over and unlock the driver's door. Because for a simple situation like this, there is no need for four police cars - simply stop the car and directly handle whatever situation is going on with the driver.
I would love to see every dangerous driving incident end this way.
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It would be nice if police had access to a "clicker"
This is actually one of the features that we are actively discussing with police and manufacturers in a related project I'm in. Can't spill the details publicly yet, but there will be a few whitepapers and such out soon.
Falling asleep is not the only scenario. There's also the case of a child triggering the autopilot and driving around without knowing what to do, or the driver suffering a heart attack or other medical condition (which has already happened in a Tesla on autopilot).
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Being asleep is dangerous. Being tired is dangerous. The car is not self-driving and can only do so on a minority of types of road.
Every technology since "driver fatigue", "lane departure" etc. alerts is just helping people kill others. Sure, the car will try to detect and cope but that's it just reminds me of a relative of mine:
The husband falls asleep so often at the wheel that the wife pokes him every few minutes to make sure he's awake. I kid you not.
What you're saying is "It's fine for these people
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Every technology since "driver fatigue", "lane departure" etc. alerts is just helping people kill others.
The simple fact that in most western countries (i.e. those where cars with such features have an increasing share of the market) the number of fatal road accidents is actually dropping does not support your hypothesis.
What you're saying is "It's fine for these people to drive, someone will prod them if they fall asleep",
That is not at all what I'm saying.
What I am actually saying is: People do drive when they shouldn't. Like it or not, it's a fact. Better the car has a failsafe mode that makes falling asleep not or at least not always equivalent to having an accident.
One day, one of these pricks [...]
Yes, I'm sure sooner or later some shit wi
It completely misses the point... (Score:2)
A number of years back, I read an article (Score:2)
url:https://phys.org/news/2018-10-electric-cars-hazard-people.html
So, it does not supersize me that drivers would encounter the same type of problem causing other issues. Falling asleep.
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Police Were Afraid to Come Out and Stop Them (Score:2)
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People have installed defeat devices for that detection that clamp onto the steering wheel.
Yes, this is amazingly retarded.
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The common trick was to put a water bottle into the steering wheel to simulate the force of human hands. Tesla defeated that trick. And yes, defeating safeties is stupid.
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"Self Assisted Cars"
Acronym: SAC
I'll just catch a bit of SAC time.
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It was called 'Beta.'
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Do you have a car and a camera?
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It was named as a reference to aircraft autopilots, which require the pilot remain aware and mentally engaged with the situation.
Or review emergency procedures, check the weather radar, devise new navigation routes and chat with Air Traffic Control.
http://flyingforeveryone.blogs... [blogspot.com]
No, fucking pilots are not constantly poised to take over control of the aircraft, their hands already on the stick and throttle, mentally tracking every movement of aircraft. Stop fucking pretending they are.