Tesla’s own numbers show Autopilot has higher crash rate than human drivers

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Tesla’s claim that its Autopilot driver-assistance software is safer than a human driver.

After a fatal Autopilot crash last May, the company said the death was the first in 130 million miles of Autopilot driving—and noted that, “among all vehicles, in the U.S., there is a fatality every 94 million miles.”

The clear implication: Autopiloted Teslas are safer than human-piloted cars, and lives would be saved if every car had Autopilot.

But Tesla’s statistics are questionable at best. The small sample size—one crash—makes any calculation of Autopilot fatality rate almost meaningless.

Furthermore, Tesla compared its Autopilot crash rate to the overall U.S. traffic fatality rate—which includes bicyclists, pedestrians, buses, and 18-wheelers. This is not just apples-to-oranges. This is apples-to-aardvarks.

One statistician called Tesla’s comparison “ludicrous on the face of it.”

Elon Musk makes cryptic comments about Tesla competing with Uber

Tesla CEO Elon Musk suggested Wednesday that he can create a car-sharing network that’s so good, customers will abandon Uber and other ride-sharing companies in droves to adopt it.

During an earnings call Wednesday, Musk was asked to explain whether his proposed car sharing network, dubbed the Tesla Network, would generate revenue for Tesla or help Tesla owners offset the costs of their vehicles. In response, Musk made some cryptic comments about the scope of his so-called “Tesla Network.”

Musk said people have been characterizing his car-sharing proposal as “Tesla versus Uber or Lyft or something like that. It’s not Tesla versus Uber, it’s the people versus Uber.” There was no follow-up question, so Musk’s statement was left hanging like that.

Germany Says ‘Nein’ to Tesla Calling Its Tech ‘Autopilot’

TESLA MOTORS’ CARS kinda drive themselves, but its Autopilot technology has caused some headaches for the company. Consumer Reports called on Tesla to recall the feature, calling it “too much autonomy, too soon.” A Florida man died in a crash while using Autopilot.

And now, German transport minister Alexander Dobrindt asked Tesla to ditch the term “Autopilot,” arguing it can lead consumers to think the car is far more capable than it is.

Before going further, a note: Model S and Model X vehicles with Autopilot can stay in their lane and maintain a safe speed. The technology is meant for highways, where there are fewer obstacles to deal with, and requires drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and remain alert. Autopilot is designed to assist drivers, not replace them.

The electric automaker said nein to Dobrindt. In a statement, the company said it duly warns drivers of the system’s limits (whether drivers pay attention is another matter). And it defended using the word autopilot: “This is how the term has been used for decades in aerospace: to denote a support system that operates under the direct supervision of a human pilot.”

Tesla Slams Breaks on Driverless Cars

The numerous automakers competing to get self-driving cars on the road want to achieve the same thing: Acquire the best possible database of autonomous behavior to ensure their cars are safer than the competition’s. That’s one reason why the industry is wary of a push by U.S. regulators to get them to share more data: The proposal essentially asks them to surrender their competitive advantage.

By encouraging drivers to give up more control to their vehicle, Tesla’s Autopilot mode may have given it an edge in data-collection over the more passive lane-assist and sensing systems employed by the likes of Volvo, BMW, GM and Toyota. But the costs of that high-stakes strategy have been outweighing the benefits: Aside from the rising toll of accidents, Mobileye blamed Musk’s over-enthusiasm about the technology for ending their relationship, and Germany last week asked Tesla to drop the term Autopilot in case it was leading drivers to reduce their attention.

Giving up on autonomous mode in new cars will reduce Tesla’s ability to overcome its numerical disadvantage in data collection against the major volume automakers. But it will ensure the entire industry is able to develop more prudently, and give regulators faith that engineers aren’t putting inter-company competition ahead of road safety. That can only be a good thing.

California to Tesla: Don’t call it ‘Autopilot’

California regulators, it turns out, take a dim view of Tesla Motors’ Autopilot — not the self-steering system itself, but the name.

In draft regulations released late Friday, the state Department of Motor Vehicles said car companies should not use the terms “self-driving,” “automated” or “auto-pilot” in advertising unless their cars are capable of driving themselves without human passengers paying attention.

For Palo Alto’s Tesla, that could pose a problem.

The company’s Autopilot system, available in both the Model S electric sedan and Model X SUV, can steer on its own and change lanes. But the human driver is supposed to remain ready to take the wheel whenever needed.

The fatal crash in May of a Tesla driver who appeared to be watching a Harry Potter video while Autopilot drove his car made the need for that requirement clear.

Why NASA thinks the Tesla Autopilot is a bad idea

NASA has been studying the pyschological effects of automation for decades, and thus may have something to teach Tesla, notes Scientific American.

“News flash: cars in 2017 equal airplanes in 1983,” Stephen Casner—a research psychologist at NASA’s Human Systems Integration Division—told the magazine.

For the public at large, the name “Autopilot” seems to imply a similarity to the automated systems that help fly planes, although the capabilities of the Tesla system are much more limited.

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Author: Leon Kaye Source: Triple Pundit You might doubt the Tesla-SolarCity merger, but you cannot dispute the ambition and vision of Elon Musk. His drive to disrupt the financial sector proved successful. And with the money Musk made from PayPal, he set out to transform the transportation and energy sectors. A decade after outlining his first master […]

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