Tesla Updates Autopilot Nag - Whiners Start Whining

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Given all the bad press that Tesla has gotten lately from people using its not-so-aptly-named "Autopilot," and running into things, it is making some changes to the "Nag" system, as its users call it. Previously, the nag would only nag you every 5 minutes if under 45mph on a straight road, and 1 to 3 minutes over 45mph. With new updates being pushed out, you will be alerted every 15 to 20 seconds to keep you hands on the steering wheel, since of course "Autopilot" does not automatically pilot your car. Oh the horror of having the drive your car. Maybe if you don't want to drive, you should take an Uber? That said, all you have to do is actually touch the steering wheel, so don't worry, you still don't have to actually drive.

Check out the video of the shocking and brutal nagging, and the horror of it wanting you to simply touch the wheel.

If the goal is to have the driver keep their hands on the steering wheel, I think this update should do it.

The thing is that many owners don’t think it should actually be required to keep your hands on the wheel and I think there’s certainly an argument for it.
 
This update will likely promote rational thought.

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"Auto Pilot" should just disengage if a hand isn't detected on the wheel.

If for some reason your arm can't be sitting in your lap or armrest with a hand resting on the wheel, you are doing something other than watching the road.
 
It's apparent that the richer you are, the less likely you are to follow instructions, hence the increased nag frequency which I guess is good. But the whole thing is Tesla's fault for calling it Autopilot. People have expectations on what that word means and until they are re-trained to a new meaning, I don't think nag addresses the root cause.
 
BlueFireIce said:
Autopilot is the correct term. People seem to think, (even lots on a tech site) that autopilot means autonomous, which it does not, not even in planes. Autopilot only maintains a heading, just like autosteer in Autopilot.
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on most roads maintaining a heading is pretty useless. People's expectations are not on what the feature does for the plane, but what it does for the pilot. It's allows the pilot to dial down their attentiveness to maintaining the plane's direction by a significant amount. That is likely what a customer is expecting from a system called autopilot a comparable level of attentiveness reduction. The fact a car's direction is more complicated to control to the same effect, the customer doesn't give two fucks.
 
darckhart said:
It's apparent that the richer you are, the less likely you are to follow instructions, hence the increased nag frequency which I guess is good. But the whole thing is Tesla's fault for calling it Autopilot. People have expectations on what that word means and until they are re-trained to a new meaning, I don't think nag addresses the root cause.
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I don't think it matters what they called it, they could have called it shitty navi and as soon as the users figured out it would do 95% of the driving for them they would abuse it, Tesla gave a little more than just an inch with their Autopilot and the users are defiantly taking their mile.

Side note if they ever do an update that renames it to Shitty Navi, I want their nag to be "Hey Listen!" every 10s that your hands aren't on that wheel at 10 & 2.
 
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jpm100 said:
on most roads maintaining a heading is pretty useless. People's expectations are not on what the feature does for the plane, but what it does for the pilot. It's allows the pilot to dial down their attentiveness to maintaining the plane's direction by a significant amount. That is likely what a customer is expecting from a system called autopilot a comparable level of attentiveness reduction. The fact a car's direction is more complicated to control to the same effect, the customer doesn't give two fucks.
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It doesn't really dial down their attentiveness as much as people think it does. The problem with the term is not what it means, but that people are morons and assume it means something it doesn't. Autopilot still has to be checked constantly, waypoints updated and confirmed, and a pile of other things checked constantly en-route. The problem is that people outside of pilots don't have a clue what happens behind the door so they assume that autopilot means the pilot can dial down his attentiveness. All it actually means is that they do other things related to flying the aircraft. They're still confirming that the autopilot is keeping a heading and that the heading is the correct one for the waypoint they've uploaded.
 
Ididar said:
It doesn't really dial down their attentiveness as much as people think it does. The problem with the term is not what it means, but that people are morons and assume it means something it doesn't. Autopilot still has to be checked constantly, waypoints updated and confirmed, and a pile of other things checked constantly en-route. The problem is that people outside of pilots don't have a clue what happens behind the door so they assume that autopilot means the pilot can dial down his attentiveness. All it actually means is that they do other things related to flying the aircraft. They're still confirming that the autopilot is keeping a heading and that the heading is the correct one for the waypoint they've uploaded.
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If their time is still filled with it, how can they fly without it?
 
BlueFireIce said:
I understand the joke....But if people assume something that is wrong....That is on them, not the device.

Tesla has also gone above and beyond in making sure they know what it is, and what it can't do. They explain to the buyer when they buy a Tesla with the system what it does and what not to do with it. They also make you sign paperwork that restates what you were told, then once you get the car, you have to turn the system on (its not on by default), and when turned on you have to agree to a prompt that again goes over its use and what it does, and even after that the system has visual and audible warnings when you are not following the proper operation. If after all of that, a person still ignores the warnings, it is fully on them, and not the system. It's why we get stupid warnings like "Do not stop chainsaw blades between legs". There are always "those" people out there, no matter how nanny we make the systems, as the saying goes, make something idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot.

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It does not allow for less attention, it only allows the pilot not to have to make many small adjustments to keep a heading, reducing fatigue, just like autosteer is doing.
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I'm telling the expectation and your description is doing nothing to dispell the idea it requires less attention from the pilot. Sounds more like you're being contrarian.
 
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The Autopilot naming has been argued into the dirt. Go do it again in another thread, that is not the topic here.
 
lcpiper said:
There is nothing wrong with calling it Autopilot, never has been.

Only an idiot would buy a Tesla, go through the training they give at time of purchase, hear the news of previous accidents, and still equate Tesla's autopilot with an actual aircraft's autopilot system. Furthermore, what kind of moron thinks that the environments of air travel and traveling the roadways are even remotely similar in challenges. Nothing in air travel happens too fast to follow short of a malfunction of the place itself or a passenger's actions. But in a car there is so much more going on, animals crossing the roads, it's just ludicrous. I can't believe any of you think that this is an issue.

That being said, I think these "quasi-autonomous" systems are a mistake. I think it's a mistake to put a human in a position where they might have to go from day-dreaming to emergency reactions with no forewarning. Either the human driver needs to be driving, or the machine does, and if the machine can't handle the job yet then they are not ready for use yet and we are pushing immature technology on people and of course it's the idiots who we see suffering first because they are the ones trusting systems that are not ready for that trust yet.
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I wonder if these people are predisposed to being in wrecks anyway. Seem to not want to pay attention to driving. Will the nag get a few more people to pay attention? probably. Does it fix the issue completely? no. Will it help cover Tesla's ass in lawsuits? Yup.
 
Driving without his hands on the wheel with autopilot engaged, in the rain, while not paying attention to the road at all since he was focused on the dash with his camera. Seems safe. Also, he (or his autopilot) was speeding (40 in a 35). If they are going to blame autopilot for everything, maybe they should update it so it will only drive the speed limit. That should tick some people off.
 
There is a much easier and cheaper fix:

Drop the idiotic brain-dead name from "Autopilot" to "Driver Assist".

The first causes you to assume the car will drive itself so you can set it and go party with the passengers.
The second tells you it is there to assist and you still need to actually... you know... do the driving.

But Tesla ain't gonna do that. People will pay a lot of money for cars they think will drive themselves.
 
cyberguyz said:
There is a much easier and cheaper fix:

Drop the idiotic brain-dead name from "Autopilot" to "Driver Assist".

The first causes you to assume the car will drive itself so you can set it and go party with the passengers.
The second tells you it is there to assist and you still need to actually... you know... do the driving.

But Tesla ain't gonna do that. People will pay a lot of money for cars they think will drive themselves.
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I think that is what people are saying here though, autopilot is the correct term. What will they do when people confuse 'driver assist' with autonomous as well?

When people need warnings to not use hair driers while in the shower, autopilot is way beyond what muggles can handle.
 
  1. Pay $70K+ for a high tech car
  2. Wait for the glorious future when your car is upgraded to full autonomy
  3. ???
  4. Have feature downgraded via over the air update

The future!
 
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That steering wheel play is terrible in the video, I can't imagine owners are going to put up with that.
 
darckhart said:
It's apparent that the richer you are, the less likely you are to follow instructions.
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From personal experience MD's (Medical Doctors) are some of the absolute worst people in this regard, always thinking they know better by looking at something for 5 seconds than the people who designed it.

It's almost scary that they actually let MD's perform surgery on people considering these personality traits.

PhD's and Engineers tend to be much better, but they also don't typically make as much money as MD's, so I guess that fits your model.

The moral of this story. Don't trust an MD unless you absolutely have to whether in professional or personal terms. Only have surgery if it is strictly necessary. These guys have such overblown egos that they think their medical degrees mean they know everything about everything, when in many cases they barely even know medicine.
 
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Zarathustra[H] said:
From personal experience MD's (Medical Doctors) are some of the absolute worst people in this regard, always thinking they know better by looking at something for 5 seconds than the people who designed it.

It's almost scary that they actually let MD's perform surgery on people considering these personality traits.

PhD's and Engineers tend to be much better, but they also don't typicaööy make as much money as MD's, so I guess that fits your model.

The moral of this story. Don't trust an MD unless you absolutely have to whether in professional or personal terms. Only have surgery if it is strictly necessary. These guys have such overblown egos that they think their medical degrees mean they know everything about everything, when in many cases they barely even know medicine.
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Remember you still get to be a Doctor if you get a C...
 
Call me when Tesla's "auto pilot" looks more like Airplane's autopilot.

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Though yes.. they should change the name to alleviate misinterpretation. Hell I have a hard time believing the joke some people say when leaving the bar exclaiming "Hey - cruise control will get me home!".
 
It doesn't matter what a word actually means, but it does matter what the masses assume it means. Just call it advanced cruise control or whatever and be done with it.

Or keep on keeping on and keep on getting the same results. What do I know? (nothing, lol)
 
ATTN: Rich cheapskate Tesla owners striving for personal autopilot status: Hire a chauffeur.

That's how we can tell you're really rich and powerful. Pretending your advanced cruise control is an automated chauffeur just says you're cheap and impotent.
 
Sheesh.

Instead of the nagging, they should just disengage the damn thing when hands are taken off the wheel and then yell long and loud. "PUT YER DAMN HANDS BACK ON THE WHEEL MORON!"
 
I find this good. I found a person on their phone in traffic the other day while letting "autopilot" do its thing.
 
They should just have it shout, "Hey, look out mother flipper!" Psuedo-randomly, to get people's attention.

Queue Lonely Island "Mother Lover"...
 
Kardonxt said:
"Auto Pilot" should just disengage if a hand isn't detected on the wheel.

If for some reason your arm can't be sitting in your lap or armrest with a hand resting on the wheel, you are doing something other than watching the road.
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But what if the "passenger" in the driver seat just really needs to reply to a text and is a two fisted texer? ;)
 
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