German Report Calls Tesla’s Autopilot A “Hazard”

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I wish people would get this right. Why doesn't anyone seem to understand that the feature, when used correctly, is not a hazard. It's the stupid "Autopilot" name that is a hazard to (dumb) people's safety.

A new study from Germany’s Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) found that the autopilot feature of the Tesla Model S constitutes a “considerable traffic hazard,” according to a report in Der Spiegel. Unsurprisingly, Tesla CEO Elon Musk doesn’t agree and today said in a tweet that those reports were “not actually based on science,” and repeated that “Autopilot is safer than manually driven cars.”
 
It's a hazard because people are idiots, not because the feature doesn't do what it's supposed to do. I kinda understand the logic, a lot of things are illegal because people are too stupid to use them responsibly but I'm not sure this is the right course here. Maybe start by enforcing more rigid standards for advertising claims?
 
Should tesla change the name of its autopilot feature? Yes. Is it their fault that people are morons when it comes to this stuff, and it's not a case of people thinking they understand a feature based just off the name but them assuming it does something that it does not based off of preconceived notions? No, but they probably should have still seen this coming.
 
They should have called it Co-Pilot... it would have been for more accurate, and way less of a legal hazard.

Co-pilot would be the perfect name for this. Don't know if you came up with this on your own but you certainly did a better job then Tesla did, and you did it for free!
 
I vote "Back seat driver"
Those are the people claiming it's a hazard.

Or the people misusing it without reading the goddamn manual.

I really hope the technology is not repressed because tesla's marketing division is filled by idiots. And lawmakers are even bigger idiots.
 
It's a hazard because people are idiots, not because the feature doesn't do what it's supposed to do.
No, it's a hazard because what it's supposed to do is to cause danger.
The autopilot is good enough to have the human driver relax and not drive most of the time.
The problem is that when the autopilot comes short, one way or the other, the human driver must react and take over more or less immediately to prevent an accident. That's very unlikely going to happen!

For the autopilot to be safe it will either have to warn the driver a reasonable amount of time (~20s) in advance before handing over the controls, or keep the driver in full control all the time only to provide occasional advice.
 
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