First Tesla Autopilot death ever - a viral Youtuber

[Deleted]

Link: http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/30/12...nomous-model-s
Link: http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/30/12...de-viral-video
Source (Tesla blog post): https://www.teslamotors.com/en_GB/bl...ss?redirect=no

A Tesla Model S with the Autopilot system activated was involved in a fatal crash, the first known fatality in a Tesla where Autopilot was active. The company revealed the crash in a blog post posted today and says it informed the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the incident, which is now investigating.

The accident occurred on a divided highway in central Florida when a tractor trailer drove across the highway perpendicular to the Model S. Neither the driver — who Tesla notes is ultimately responsible for the vehicle’s actions, even with Autopilot on — nor the car noticed the big rig or the trailer "against a brightly lit sky" and brakes were not applied.

Because of the high ride-height of the trailer, as well as its positioning across the road, the Model S passed under the trailer and the first impact was between the windshield and the trailer. Tesla writes that if the car had impacted the front or rear of the trailer, even at high speed, the car’s safety systems "would likely have prevented serious injury as it has in numerous other similar incidents."

The accident occurred May 7th in Williston, Florida with 40-year-old Ohio resident Joshua Brown driving. The truck driver was not injured.

Joshua Brown's final uploaded video, 2 months ago, and a close call motorway situation itself while Autopilot was engaged, was actually tweeted by Elon Musk:

Owner video of Autopilot steering to avoid collision with a truck https://t.co/FZUAXSjlR7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 17, 2016

[May90]

Well, there is around 100,000 Tesla cars in use, from what I've gathered by googling... The fact that there has been only one death so far in a few years is actually quite encouraging. Pity still... Poor guy.

[Jotaux]

Well from the description the truck driver is responsible for the accident and the Tesla driver would have been killed with or without autopilot.

[Thage]

Well, there is around 100,000 Tesla cars in use, from what I've gathered by googling... The fact that there has been only one death so far in a few years is actually quite encouraging. Pity still... Poor guy.

Aye. Statistically speaking, one death in around 100k is phenomenal for this kind of thing. That one death is still a complete tragedy, yes, but it's a testament that there haven't been more.

[Independent voter]

Somebody had to be first.

[Rixis]

Don't they specifically tell you not to take your hands off the wheel and to keep vigilant at all times?

I'm surprised, given the number of videos on Youtube of idiots purposely doing the opposite, that this is the first one.

[Kapadons]

There was 3 fatal car crashes in my town this morning. And that was just on my way to work. Lord knows how many there was for the whole day. If this is the first one , and it was kind of a "freak" thing, I think the Tesla system is working just fine.

[Crissi]

Though on the brightside (I always look at the brightside) maybe Tesla can improve their sensors/software/DL network to account for these types of situations.

They'd need to up the height range on their sensors. Can't detect what it isn't hitting due to being too low. How they'd do that I don't know. Maybe have the sensors higher up on the car?

[Deleted]

Though on the brightside (I always look at the brightside) maybe Tesla can improve their sensors/software/DL network to account for these types of situations.

Build a Tesla Dyson Sphere around that pesky sun!

[Drutt]

That's a pretty niche scenario. If that's what it takes for Autopilot to not save you then I'd say Tesla have done a fantastic job with it.

[May90]

Though on the brightside (I always look at the brightside) maybe Tesla can improve their sensors/software/DL network to account for these types of situations.

There is a professor at our university that works in the project that is aimed at making all cars (Tesla or not) communicate with each other. He says it is a very well funded governmental initiative, and the goal it to equip all cars with sensors and intelligent systems which could hijack the control from the driver in case their actions are dangerous, so two cars can "talk" to each other, see how they can avoid a collision and correct their course. The ultimate goal is for the cars to be able to organize on their own in high traffic conditions optimally. Theoretically, if implemented, it could avoid all car crashes caused by wrong actions from the drivers - although, I wouldn't expect it to happen in the foreseeable future.

[Sliske]

Can't be the only one who thought of the long list of big youtubers who they'd love to see die and wished it was one of them

[Kaleredar]

Well from the description the truck driver is responsible for the accident and the Tesla driver would have been killed with or without autopilot.

It depends on the distance the truck driver had pulled across the road. If he was well on his way to turning, (which he most likely would have to have been to allow for the car to hit the trailer) then any normal driver would have slowed down for the truck to complete its turn. The driver, either not paying attention or not seeing it, and the car, whose sensors likely couldn't detect that far in advance, obviously didn't slow down.



The issue this raises is one of Human error vs manufacture error. Humans put up with human error in things like car accidents becuase they can always say "well I'm not that person, I wouldn't make that mistake." Someone leaves something in an oven too long, it burns down their house... you don't blame the oven, you blame the person.

But a manufacturing (which we'll count this autopilot as) errors? That's a whole different thing. If you own that product, suddenly, that same thing could happen to you. You go to turn your oven on and some one-in-a-million scenario makes it explode and take the house down with it? Same scenario as before, except now, in people's minds, everyone who owns that oven has the potential for blowing themselves up inadvertently.

That's the major obstacle for self-driving cars. That one thing that the programmers didn't think of. Suddenly, that's some fatal accident that can happen to anybody because the car made the mistake, instead of your far-more-frequent and likely drunk driver driving into the K-rail or somesuch that doesn't concern people nearly sa much.

[TheTaurenOrc]

So is this anti autopilot for the Tessa? Or Pro autopilot for the truck?

[May90]

Yes, this is the V2V project I was talking about... I have also been actively following and commenting on their proposals for a few years now. It is a really cool idea. It is akin to Waze, though a lot more advanced and interconnected.

Yes, I think that is what it was called. Indeed, it is very interesting and promising! The only problem I have with it is that people might get used to relying on these systems to drive, and when they malfunction, they might not be able to take the right action. But then, in systems like this I would expect security and safety to be the top priority in development.

[Dextroden]

Snip

This was a good post with decent reasoning why people could end up concerned with how well autopilot performs and accidents involving self driving cars.

[Yvaelle]

Autopilot is not a "Self-Driving Car" - people need to stop being stupid.

Until the car is truly self-driving, you don't get to take your hands off the wheel and let Jesus take the wheel.

- - - Updated - - -

So is this anti autopilot for the Tessa? Or Pro autopilot for the truck?

Definitely pro-autopilot for the truck, IMO - the truck seems to be the one at fault (even had it not been on autopilot).

[Deleted]

Oddly enough, I've seen another interesting situation a month ago where a Tesla seemed to have driven itself into a truck, in what sounds like a similar unconventional position in the crash of Joshua Brown:



http://gas2.org/2016/05/12/tesla-mod...h-drive-truck/

The driver in that article says the Tesla did that all by itself and claims he has a witness inside a shop with him that states he was nowhere near the car when it happened. Tesla, on the other hand, says that their computers are infallible and observed it differently. It's a different feature though - not the Autopilot, but the Summon feature.

[Grimbold21]

I predict some folks will use this like the anti vaxxers use the "oh! but there is this one study that says vaccines cause autism!!"

[Dsc]

He died doing what he loved.

( I like driving, I have no interest in the auto pilot or self driving cars.)
I see a deer's eyes dang near a 1/4 mile down the road at night, BEFORE it jumps infront of me at 45-85) Auto pilot would fail.

This will be used by the Agenda 21 Technocracy types to make it so you can't afford to insure a regular car.
It's in their whitepapers.
They'll be forcing future generations and even some of us into mega city shitholes. \
I chose a rural career in the science field that cannot be automated. at least not for 200 years,
enjoy it kids. I see it already, groups forming 501c3s, cordoning off huge swatches of land that aren't for the common man, and huge agribiz farms.