Tesla Owner Who Turned On Autopilot Then Sat in Passenger Seat Banned from Driving

Megalith

Megalith

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A motorist in England has been banned from driving for 18 months after he was caught in the passenger seat with his Tesla on Autopilot, leaving the steering wheel and foot controls completely unmanned. Bhavesh Patel, who was charged with dangerous driving, knew that he was doing something “silly” but just wanted to test out the “amazing” capabilities of his car.

No one could be seen in the driver's seat and Patel appeared to have his hands behind his head. The witness, who was a passenger in another car, filmed Patel as the car drove past. Witness accounts stated that traffic was heavy due to congestion and it has been estimated that the vehicle was travelling at approximately 40mph at the time.
 
Xavier Zepherious said:
who think banning a driver for NOT DRIVING is gonna help???....rotflmao

really - you think "well I was a passenger before now i can stay a passenger and let the car drive from now on" might pop in his mind
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I dunno, I figure here in the US, they'll give him some sort of silly slap on the wrist (unless he's non-white, in which case they'll shoot him), and let him back out on the road.
 
Slade said:
I think Tesla's biggest problem aside from the dumb name choice, is the owners themselves who pull this stupid shit.
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It's not a dumb name choice, it's a very deliberate (and evil) marketing one using the difference between the actual definition of autopilot and the public understanding of autopilot. Tesla knows that when the average person hears "autopilot", they think it fully drives itself, as most people are not pilots and don't actually know how airplane autopilot works. That way, Tesla can get publicity and investment from making people think their cars are more capable than they actually are, but without any legal responsibility, because if the car fails to meet the inflated expectations (by crashing, for example), they can just say that autopilots are not fully autonomous - you still have to pay attention and be ready to take control 100% of the time. But if Tesla was more honest about the capabilities of their cars and people knew they had to pay attention all the time, people would be a lot less interested in Tesla.
 
If I was to give Autonomy a percentage. I would ban autonomy ratings from 30% to 99.9%. I would essentially only allow 100% autonomy, really.

There are two problems here. #1 is public perception of the capability of Tesla's system. We can set asideTesla's obligation or non-obligation to dispel the public or at least customers of that capability. #2 is even if Tesla's system was what people thought it was, a system that is not 100% autonomous will be treated as 100% autonomous not matter how much training or education people have.

Like the Uber incident. You simply can't have people watch paint dry and give it 100% of their attention. Even if you pay them. Their mind will wonder eventually and they will no longer be engaged with the surroundings. The person in the article did it deliberately and even smart people will do it unconsciously.
 
Master_shake_ said:
Self driving cars are the future no matter how much the government tries to intervene.
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Maybe.

Maybe not.

The fact is, this isn't "The Future".

This is "NOW".

And right "NOW", these systems are deeply flawed, imperfect, and therefore, dangerous to operate fully unsupervised.
 
Chas said:
Maybe.

Maybe not.

The fact is, this isn't "The Future".

This is "NOW".

And right "NOW", these systems are deeply flawed, imperfect, and therefore, dangerous to operate fully unsupervised.
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This is certainly the case and autonomous cars are right now still an early technology. This is exactly why we're seeing the flaws. They are also certainly part of the future if we can manage to improve our infrastructure to support them and succeed in educating the populous about how it works. Right now the only full autonomous systems that can really work are the ones which are on a closed circuit and ones which aren't fully autonomous but only partly all have some form of human guidance, supervision, or intervention capability.

Given the maturity of our society who doesn't take life seriously, as evidenced by this genius, this has a long way to go before we get there.
 
jpm100 said:
Like the Uber incident. You simply can't have people watch paint dry and give it 100% of their attention. Even if you pay them. Their mind will wonder eventually and they will no longer be engaged with the surroundings. The person in the article did it deliberately and even smart people will do it unconsciously.
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Exactly. If you can't use it, don't offer it. The Uber accident was all the proof we needed.
 
Banned from driving eh? Most people just call it having their license revoked/suspended. I mean realistically the asshole can likely still go hop into a car and drive around, and hell probably won’t even get caught.
 
upload_2018-4-28_19-1-46.jpeg
 
It's funny, because this is so easily preventable by Tesla. Cars have had occupancy sensors in seats for years now, you see it all the time when the passenger airbag is disabled because no one is in that seat or weighs enough(so the assumption is that it's empty or there is a car seat in place). By now those sensors are jelly bean parts that cost next to nothing. Sure at that point this idiot could have put a couple bags of concrete or whatever in the drivers seat, but when you're talking about a car that costs that much it doesn't matter when such a small investment per car would further shit the blame for crap like this to idiot customers.
 
This is why we can't have nice things.

At least Europe and the UK have appropriately stringent driving laws - 18 months might even be a little lenient for that level of stupidity.
 
Xavier Zepherious said:
who think banning a driver for NOT DRIVING is gonna help???....rotflmao

really - you think "well I was a passenger before now i can stay a passenger and let the car drive from now on" might pop in his mind
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Well it was also an 1800 pound fine and 100 hours community service. He pled guilty I presume in exchange for a lighter sentence. There was also the court time, the fact that he's now famous for a stupid thing...hopefully he'll think twice before doing some stupid stunt again...people can and do learn from mistakes.
 
So much talk in here about how flawed and limited the systems are. He didn't get caught because he crashed remember. That's actually quite impressive.

Autopilot is a dumb fuckin' name though. Tesla have questions to answer about their commitment to safety. My car can do a lot of what the Tesla does but if I take my hand off the wheel it whinges and eventually (I believe) stops. You can fool it with a soda n attached to the wheel but things like that and the seat sensors mentioned above should be a given.
 
Tesla should be in shit for this. I car shouldn't opperate without a driver in the seat.
 
Bhavesh just be ballin', haters gonna hate!


That said, I wonder if revoking a license of someone is as effective in the UK as it is here. Where just about everyone with a revoked license will still drive, and face the crime if they get caught.
 
And if he would have gotten into an accident he would have denied it and claimed the car suddenly accelerated.
 
Chas said:
You want to wager with your life?

Good fucking luck!
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We do every day. ;)

How many people on the road are simple(ly) bad drivers?
Distracted drivers. Ever heard of them? Apparently they kill indiscriminately.
Intoxicated drivers. What would you choose sir. An intoxicated driver who gets behind the wheel, or one sitting in the passenger seat?
Sleep deprived, stressed, the mentally ill, or just plain assholes. Does AI have these issues?
The elderly. Oh ya I said it! Shriveled scud missiles of death!
Oh and psychopaths. Yes the people who kill deliberately. Check out Toronto last week. Would AI do that?


Bottom line. We the people will continue to kill more of our selves then the AI driving ever will. Now I'm not going to support abandoned driving like is being discussed, but the state it is in only leads to unacceptable events like the Uber death. Either perfect it through governmental regulatory standards to which are legal and insurable, or not.
So in short, ya I'll take your wager, even in the current state of the tech.
 
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