The argument is that if the driver was in a different vehicle he would have done just that, pulled over and picked it up, but because he believed the Tesla was capable of driving safely on it's own he didn't do so.
Normally I turn the steering wheel when I want to turn my car. If you sold me a car and told me it had technology to make turns automatically without my input then I might let go of the wheel instead of turning it, something I would never have done otherwise. If I then don't turn and slam straight into a wall, am I at fault for trusting what I was sold to be true?
If the driver has heard that their Tesla is capable of autonomous driving, and therefore trusts it to drive itself, there may be a fair argument that Tesla shares in that blame. If it's a completely unreasonable belief (like me believing my 1998 Toyota is capable of self driving) then that argument falls apart. But if Tesla has promoted their self driving feature as being fully functional, used confusing descriptions like "Full Self-Driving", etc, it might become a pretty reasonable argument.
Every time I engage Autopilot in my Model S it admonishes me with a notice in the instrument cluster that I am to keep my hands on the wheel. If I don't make it clear the car that I am there and holding on by applying a little rotational force to the wheel at least every fifteen seconds the car will remind me.
So how does one conclude the that the car is capable of driving itself? Or is the version of Autopilot in the car in question different in this respect?
Autopilot is not autonomous driving and isn't marketed as such; Full Self Driving (FSD) is an extra cost option.
Does it remind you thay it cant stop at an intersection, or brake to avoid hitting objects? If it did then the person might be more responsible. But elon wouldnt have let the engineers put that in because it goes against his grift
They also said that by putting his foot down on the accelerator, he overrode the feature. He might say he didn't know that's how it worked, but then there's even more fault for performing such a dangerous action not knowing how the thing you think will save you is supposed to be operated.
It also ignores how Tesla promoted "autopilot". Until very recently tesla.com/autopilot just showed that a video saying the driver was only there for legal reasons. Yes maybe technically they meant FSD (for which it's also a lie, and which has a lying name as well) but they were definitely mixing the terms up themselves (and I think the video predated FSD)
Do you honestly think a negligent driver who blows through a stop sign at 62 mph would have acted differently in a car marketed to have "SuperCruise" rather than "Autopilot"? I have no strong belief either way, and I shed no tears for Tesla, but I do worry about any chilling effect on technologies that will make driving safer than the bloodbath we currently suffer on the roads every day.
For one thing, SuperCruise and BlueCruise are limited to mapped uninterrupted highways. He couldn’t activate it on that street.
Not only would that have physically prevented it. But if he had been using those systems he would have known they were limited. It makes it much more clear what their capabilities are.
We know how to fix the “bloodbath“. We don’t choose to. I question if level two driving systems help or make things worse despite having used them myself.
Slower speeds and better designed roads make a massive difference. We keep speeds high, make giant wide roads/stroads that psychologically encourage high speed even if the marked speed is lower. We don’t punish speeders anywhere near enough. and we don’t build with trees or other large things next to the road, we put the sidewalk there.
Because when a car that’s going too fast makes a mistake, it’s important that it can mow through a pedestrian and survive instead of hitting a big tree and hurt the driver.
those giant trees next to the road on old streets? They psychologically encouraged the driver not to go as fast. Because they don’t feel as safe at the higher speeds. we chose to stop doing that.
Lower death rates are 100% doable without modern assist systems of any kind.
Normally I turn the steering wheel when I want to turn my car. If you sold me a car and told me it had technology to make turns automatically without my input then I might let go of the wheel instead of turning it, something I would never have done otherwise. If I then don't turn and slam straight into a wall, am I at fault for trusting what I was sold to be true?
If the driver has heard that their Tesla is capable of autonomous driving, and therefore trusts it to drive itself, there may be a fair argument that Tesla shares in that blame. If it's a completely unreasonable belief (like me believing my 1998 Toyota is capable of self driving) then that argument falls apart. But if Tesla has promoted their self driving feature as being fully functional, used confusing descriptions like "Full Self-Driving", etc, it might become a pretty reasonable argument.