
Tesla crashes into wall during auto-park, Tesla: Beta feature, so owner's fault - heyyyouu
https://twitter.com/johnblackjr/status/1128330292098285568
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heyyyouu
What I don't understand (and maybe I'm just naive) is how it's legal to test a
so-called "beta feature" \-- which, if it fails, clearly can be dangerous
(lucky no one was hurt) -- on customers in a live environment, vs using its
own test drivers at the very least? I can't imagine this being legal with any
other form of transportation (or just large equipment; they don't even sell
lightbulbs that aren't CE certified).

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surrealize
Of course Tesla tests things itself with its own drivers. What they can't do
is replicate every single one of the unusual corner cases that people
encounter in the real world.

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hjk05
Sure, but that’s true of all companies. Imagine a drug company put a drug on
the market that might kill your or leave you crippled if you don’t match the
results they had on their 3 test patients, and them telling you “That’s on
you, the drug is a beta”.

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kruczek
That's a bad example, because drugs typically have all kinds of warnings about
negative effects. They certainly test on more than 3 patients, and they won't
tell you the drug is a beta, but I'm sure they will still claim they are not
responsible, because they warned you about very small chance of failure.

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extropy
IMO this is pure FUD, no actual correspondence with Tesla to back it up.

It would be silly for Tesla to argue that it's driver's fault because "beta".
Every other car manufacturer will say it's driver's responsibility when using
autopark, full stop.

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duxup
It would be interesting to get non Twitter, more in depth information on this.

Beta software that has safety implications on a car seems strange.

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heyyyouu
There are a few reporters who reached out to the poster via twitter -- I'd
expect follow-up stories over the next couple days (with them at least asking
Telsa for comment; no guarantee they'll respond, of course, but would really
like to see what Tesla says).

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priceytomato292
don't you sign a liability waiver when entering Tesla beta program?

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microwavecamera
Tesla still has to meet vehicle safety regulations. It's a friggin' car not
the Windows Insider Program. No one dies if my PC crashes.

~~~
ulfw
This is what happens when you are trying to do manufacturing “Silicon Valley”
style

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vondur
I don't think signing up for beta software on a car like this is a good idea.

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zyang
Just glad no one was hurt.

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Traster
I'm kind of interested how anything even could be a Beta feature in a car's
context - or atleast a safety critical feature like this.

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unstatusthequo
Do people have any personal accountability anymore? "The company will protect
me" is such a foolish thought process, especially when you're playing with
beta features that have risks.

This to me isn't all that different than the guy who crashed his Tesla while
watching a movie behind the wheel. Culpability. Assumption of risk. But-for
causation. All the usual legal theories apply.

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serf
>Do people have any personal accountability anymore?

Yes.

The problem is that people shouldn't have to be accountable for failure-modes
that they in no way have the training to predict, understand, or recover from.

The FDA explains the specific risks of a drug. They don't just say "This drug
can cause issues.".

Hand-waving all corporate fault by _admitting_ that your corporation is
perfectly okay with beta software being on the public road as long as the car
owner assumes responsibility is not a solution to the liability question.

A responsible beta program would 1) not be on the public highway in any means
2) require the participants to have a high familiarity with the product and
the technical know-how to be effective members of the testing community; which
should include training on not only error and incident reporting, but failure
recovery and failure scope.

It's perfectly reasonable that a user would operate a mechanism incorrectly
when their only advice is "Good luck, it's experimental!".

