Latest Emergency Vehicle Collision in Houston

[jerhenderson]

People doing stupid things isn’t news. Robot cars doing stupid things is.

People doing stupid things isn’t news. Robot cars doing stupid things is.

oh it's not the car...it's the driver not using the safety features.

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[Jhodgesatmb]

Several of the 11 incidents involved drunk driving.

There is also a minority of Tesla drivers who feel they can turn on autopilot and punch out from the world, playing video games, watching movies, reading books, napping, etc. I'm pretty sure it's a minority anyhow.

I just drove home at night on the highway and there was a construction crew and no flag men. It was scary and if we had had a Tesla and AP I could see it making a mistake because I could have.

I am concerned about these issues with AP hitting emergency vehicles but I am hopeful that the problem will go away when the integrated FSD comes out.

 

[HaulingAss]

If Autopilot was indeed fully in control during all of these incidents (a fact which is not clear at least in my mind), the underlying issue is important and needs to be fixed regardless of what human drivers do.

If Autopilot was in full control you wouldn't need to keep your hands on the wheel and pay attention at all times! People hitting parked emergency vehicles cannot blame it on Auotilot until it's driverless.

 

[Cyberman]

An ICE car hit a police Cruiser by my house a month ago- why isn't that in the news ?

Because The Big Three aren't pushing it to front page news so as to bury Tesla in negative publicity. But all propaganda is good propaganda. Intelligent minds are able to do a little BS detecting, end result: Tesla doesn't advertise, and still can't build them fast enough.

 

[jerhenderson]

If Autopilot was in full control you wouldn't need to keep your hands on the wheel and pay attention at all times! People hitting parked emergency vehicles cannot blame it on Auotilot until it's driverless.

they try.

 

[jerhenderson]

I just drove home at night on the highway and there was a construction crew and no flag men. It was scary and if we had had a Tesla and AP I could see it making a mistake because I could have.

I am concerned about these issues with AP hitting emergency vehicles but I am hopeful that the problem will go away when the integrated FSD comes out.

don't worry....AP is already 10x safer than you.

 

[Friday]

Several states have "Move Over" laws specifically created because running into stopped/pulled over Emergency vehicles is a very common preventable accident. Lots of deaths and injuries.

These laws have pre-dated Tesla is some cases.

This problem exists due to human errors. Autopilot is a tool and the driver is still supposed to be in control of the tool at all times behind the wheel.

 

[CyberGus]

As a regular viewer of the "Wham Bam Teslacam" channel, I often see that the at-fault party immediately attempts to deflect blame...at least, until they see the footage. So I am unsurprised when an at-fault driver attempts to blame the car.

 

[Ogre]

oh it's not the car...it's the driver not using the safety features.

If the driver was preventing Autopilot from doing its job in some way, then it is clearly the drivers fault.

If the car was in full control—throttle, steering, braking—it should not hit stationary objects. If nothing else, this investigation should clarify if this was a case or if the driver was over-riding the throttle & brake or had crippled Autopilot in some fashion.

I am purchasing Autopilot as a safety feature. I expect it to do its primary function—not crash—without fault. Musk has said outright that that is it's primary job. I pay attention, I fondle the steering wheel, I correct it when it goofs, and I will continue to do so. I have zero doubt that I or any reasonably alert driver would have avoided these accidents.

All that said, one of the main reasons I want autopilot is for those times when I as a driver fail (while it's engaged). If I can't rely on Autopilot to gloss over my occasional failures, what is the point of it? According to it's maker, not crashing is it's primary job.

 

[Ogre]

If Autopilot was in full control you wouldn't need to keep your hands on the wheel and pay attention at all times! People hitting parked emergency vehicles cannot blame it on Auotilot until it's driverless.

I take these stories with a huge grain of salt.

I'm not trying to suggest that Autopilot is the issue here. I would just very much like to know with some certainty if it was or not in control.

I see two possibilities here.

#1 The drivers were actively bypassing Autopilot's control of brakes & throttle. I honestly don't see any issue with autopilot in this case.

#2 The drivers were inattentive and Autopilot just screwed the pooch. The driver is still at fault, but this type of accident concerns me because it's exactly the sort of thing I feel autopilot should *never do*. If I have a heart attack or fall asleep at the wheel, I should be able to rely on Autopilot to do something reasonably safe.

There have been past autopilot failures where the driver was merely inattentive or in one case in control but assumed autopilot would dodge something and didn't. That's why this concerns me.

 

[Sirfun]

When I drive with adaptive cruise, there are times when the vehicle is going into an area with stopped vehicles or other situations that cause me to touch the brake. That instantly disengages the cruise and for an instant there can be times of panic, because the hand-over may not have gone well.
I wonder if some of these accidents the autopilot became disengaged by the drivers or Autopilot, and the drivers weren't prepared for the hand-off.
BTW I watched a video with Sandy Munro testing Blue Cruise, and that hands-free system is beyond scary. He had a Ford engineer with him and they were driving down the interstate with the Mach-E driving straight very well. Sandy didn't have his hands on the wheel (look Ma no hands). But as soon as there was a bend in the INTERSTATE, the car chimes and shuts off Blue Cruise. YIKES, why would you want to take your hands off the wheel if at any moment the system will quit on you, and you need to grab the wheel and take over.
Here's the Munro video:

 

[Crissa]

Well, several of these cases involve one or more of:

• Drunk drivers. As in, they were arrested for intoxication.
• Extreme speed. Tesla disables Autopilot at high speed (it maxes at 90).
• Ignoring Autopilot warnings.
• Calling plain cruise control 'Autopilot' - a Tesla flashes a warning when a subsystem is unavailable.
• Overriding Autopilot in the car's configuration setting.
• Falling asleep while driving.

As I said before, there have been documented Autopilot crashes. But they're super-rare and all involved radar-equipped Teslas and perpendicular obstructions.

-Crissa

 

[CyberGus]

... as soon as there was a bend in the INTERSTATE, the car chimes and shuts off Blue Cruise. YIKES, why would you want to take your hands off the wheel if at any moment the system will quit on you, and you need to grab the wheel and take over.
Here's the Munro video:

My understanding from watching that video is that Blue Cruise will permit hands-off driving when going basically straight, but asks the driver to hold the wheel in curves. I'm unclear on what it will do if the driver fails to comply, lol

 

[JeffnReno]

Most all of us have muscle memory along with reflex actions that can negatively impact the final result when AP or FSD is engaged. When I first started using these features over 2 years ago, I was frequently jerking the steering wheel in response to other drivers doing stupid things around me. Sometimes I would quickly move to the brake peddle in response to traffic before the car could respond. All these things cause the car to disengage that driver-assist feature just as they should but my reaction to them disengaging wasn't always smooth and caused quite a high level of discomfort for my wife and other passengers. Over time, I've learned to disengage those features smoothly when I predict a situation that I'd rather be in control of, and the features themselves have improved to the point where those situations have become much less frequent. Remember that the car is learning but so is the driver. Pay attention, stay safe and stay alive!

 

[Sirfun]

My understanding from watching that video is that Blue Cruise will permit hands-off driving when going basically straight, but asks the driver to hold the wheel in curves. I'm unclear on what it will do if the driver fails to comply, lol

Yes, I assumed that if it required you to put your hands on the wheel, it was disengaging. But, Maybe it wants you to hold the wheel because Ford is unsure if it can safely go around the curve. So, maybe it can make the curve, maybe not! Also, I noticed Munro disengages the Blue Cruise at 5:58 because the Semi in the right lane, is attempting to do a lane change into their lane, and the Mach-E was not slowing down to let him in. Blue Cruise looks weak!

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