Back in December, I was testing a Tesla's autopilot, and yeah, the things will try to kill you sometimes. Especially areas with high speed limits under construction, just don't even try. Take it off autopilot and steer. It's not like you can squarely blame the victim or the algorithms, in most circumstances.
Absolutely agree. The owner of the Tesla of course gave me a run-through, but what shocked me was how quickly I began to trust the autopilot. It was something I had to be vigilant against when autopilot was engaged, which kinda defeats the purpose.
I wish I could just shrug when a feature works as designed, but confuses a few people into misusing it and getting undesirable results. Fixing non-bugs is irritating. To my knowledge, our undesirable results have never been fatal though. That's somewhere well beyond the suck it up point.
As much as I love what Tesla is doing to the auto market (and have been paying attention to the court battle in my home state between them and the auto dealers' association with, as they say, great interest), this was really dumb. I get what they're doing -- trying to scare off the plaintiffs in the inevitable lawsuit, and prevent further fears about the safety of their cars (while also trying to get people to not depend on the autopilot). But this was totally a forced error. As an aside, they should probably rethink what they call the thing.
I'm of the opinion that Tesla wants people to think adaptive cruise control and lane assist are an auto pilot.As an aside, they should probably rethink what they call the thing.
Tesla is too good at marketing to demote the perceived value proposition of their product. Every product they release they make it seem like its the biggest greatest thing ever made.