
Study: Tesla Autopilot misleading, overestimated more than similar technology - pseudolus
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/06/21/study-tesla-autopilot-misleading-overestimated-more-than-similar-technology/
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jrochkind1
So I take it it's NOT okay to take your hands off the wheel with Tesla
Autopilot? I am not familiar with the technology.

The Tesla page on it
([https://www.tesla.com/autopilot](https://www.tesla.com/autopilot)) takes a
while to get to describing what it _does_ , but then says, among other things:

> Autopilot enables your car to steer, accelerate and brake automatically
> within its lane.

And:

> With the new Tesla Vision cameras, sensors and computing power, your Tesla
> will navigate tighter, more complex roads.

So it's steering... but you're supposed to leave your hands on the wheel
anyway? But not actually steering, just resting there just in case? I'm not
sure how realistic this is in terms of human behavior. To their credit, the
page, at least as of this moment, also says:

> Current Autopilot features require active driver supervision and do not make
> the vehicle autonomous.

Reading just the web page, if you asked me "So, do you need to leave your
hands on the wheel when autopilot is engaged on the freeway", I'd be unsure.
Does "active driver supervision" mean "hands on the wheel"?

In general, it is very hard for humans to keep paying close attention to
something they aren't involved in actually actively controlling, "just in
case." I'm not sure if there's a way for this technology to be safe, if that's
what it depends on to be safe. (not unique to Tesla).

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nerdbaggy
Ahh the old Tesla and orange trick
[https://youtu.be/rOST5S06F-o](https://youtu.be/rOST5S06F-o)

~~~
ryeights
IMO stuff like this should be subject to the same safe disclosure procedures
as security vulnerabilities. You _know_ a bunch of idiots are going to try
this after watching this video and endanger other drivers in the process

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AcerbicZero
"Cruise Control" doesn't mean I can ignore the ~3200lbs of sports car I drive,
just like "Tesla Autopilot" doesn't mean drivers can ignore the ~5000lbs of
battery under them.

As an American who spends considerable time driving cars in various
performance events (even some fun wheel to wheel endurance stuff) I think I
can safely estimate at least ~25% of drivers on the road today, probably
shouldn't be. Tesla is making progress, and regardless of whether they survive
these various courts of public opinion, they're helping to lay the ground work
for safer roads by forcing the industry to integrate more and more automated
safety systems.

There will be problems. Computers will fail, mistakes will be made, and people
will die, but I'm confident the break even point on those human costs is
already pretty far behind us.*

*That said, we already have onerous and terrible auto regulations in this country. If we (as a society) want to force companies to be more cautious in this area, well, its entirely within our regulatory structures power to do so.

~~~
justapassenger
> they're helping to lay the ground work for safer roads by forcing the
> industry to integrate more and more automated safety systems.

They focus more on driver-aid systems that encourage not paying attention.
Their automated safety systems aren't anything special compared to what most
manufactures offer.

~~~
agitator
I disagree.

Which other vehicles on the road actively steer your vehicle away from an
imminent collision when it's safe to do so?

Tesla's blind spot monitoring doesn't just detect what's in your blind spot,
like other vehicles, it also detects whether a vehicle is slowing down or
accelerating into the "blind spot" adjacent to your vehicle.

Their autopilot or automated emergency braking doesn't just brake when a
vehicle in front of your slams on it's brakes, it slows down when someone in
front of that vehicle hit the brakes.

There's a lot of intelligent engineering there, and a lot of improvements that
are pushing the industry to be safer and more responsible. There's a lot of
negative press out there, but much of it is not based on fair statistics.

~~~
cjcenizal
My Model 3 did exactly that this morning. I was in the act of changing lanes,
expecting the car behind me in the target lane to either maintain speed or
slow to avoid hitting me. Instead it sped up, my car alerted me, and as I
glanced in the side view to see the car approaching, the steering wheel gently
tugged me (us??) back into our lane, avoiding collision. I’ve never felt so
grateful to an object before.

~~~
astazangasta
Whereas, i presume, in your previous non-Tesla cars you were regularly getting
into pileups?

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Dylan16807
How reductive. Let's try looking at it as getting _closer_ to accidents before
managing to fix the issue. So now with this system, one-in-a-million odds of
that type of accident might become one-in-ten-million odds.

~~~
astazangasta
My point, ill-made, is this is anecdotal data and therefore useless in
evaluating anything.

~~~
cjcenizal
To be better understood, you could try directly stating your point instead of
making a snarky remark that requires interpretation. :) as far as anecdotes,
that’s all I have to offer on this topic. Feel free to ignore them if they
don’t help you in evaluating something.

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6gvONxR4sf7o
>Tesla also pointed out: “... If IIHS is opposed to the name ‘Autopilot,’
presumably they are equally opposed to the name ‘Automobile.’ ”

Seriously? This reads like internet trolls. But it's from a public company.

~~~
camjohnson26
From the CEO who called a hero rescue diver “Pedo guy”

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YeGoblynQueenne
>> If IIHS is opposed to the name ‘Autopilot,’ presumably they are equally
opposed to the name ‘Automobile.

My best attempt to understand this cryptic comment is as saying that Tesla
intends "Autopilot" to mean a system for "piloting" an "automobile", unrelated
to the common use of the word in aviation, where it's an "automated pilot(ing
system)".

Even if that is the case, they should be aware of the potential for confusion
with "automated pilot" and for the risk that this confusion entails.

~~~
elisharobinson
the paragraph above it clearly states that the users are trained on how to
engage and disengage the system. If consumers have a good understanding of the
system and still feel that it is better than the competition how can it be an
issue of mislabelling

~~~
Quanttek
Your comment is very misleading. You are referring to a statement by a *Tesla
spokesperson:

> “Tesla provides owners with clear guidance on how to properly use Autopilot,
> as well as in-car instructions before they use the system and while the
> feature is in use,” a Tesla spokeswoman said Friday. “If a Tesla vehicle
> detects that a driver is not engaged while Autopilot is in use, the driver
> is prohibited from using it for that drive.”

~~~
elisharobinson
so are they not providing the training ?? and if they are not i would accept
my comments to be missleading.

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pseudolus
The percentage of drivers who think it's safe to nap is small but nonetheless
frightening. What are these people thinking?

~~~
zaroth
They are thinking the same thing as people who drive drunk. People can be
idiots.

You have to actively disable safety measures in order to get the car to drive
for any kind of extended period without applying force to the wheel.

Anyone caught doing this intentionally should be cited for impaired driving
same as a DUI.

Then there are the people who legitimately fall asleep at the wheel and
AutoPilot saves their lives, which is a different matter.

~~~
viraptor
> They are thinking the same thing as people who drive drunk.

They're worse. People who drive drunk don't necessarily make a fully conscious
decision to do that. Their judgement is already impaired.

But if they think that sleeping with autopilot on is reasonable, that's 100%
on them. It's something they decided ahead of time.

~~~
coss
Lots of studies show that people who are sleep deprived are just as bad with
judgement.

~~~
viraptor
That's a different question though. The people were asked if they considered
it safe in general. They were not in a situation when they were sleep deprived
(hopefully).

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Theodores
I know that the name is a good one, but 'Autopilot' is a troublesome name.

I think a better way forward would be to do something fun with the 'Autopilot'
name, e.g.:

"Zanzibar (formerly known as Autopilot)"

Nobody need know what "Zanzibar" actually is other than some place a long way
from California. You could easily talk about your Tesla to a non-owner saying
'yeah, it's got Zanzibar...' or to a fellow owner 'did you spec the Zanzibar
level 5 option?'

I picked the name 'Zanzibar' randomly here, it could be any place rather than
any thing. If Autopilot was rebranded as 'celery' then someone would expect
that in the glovebox. A brand name that means nothing and can be nebulous
would be best.

~~~
sephamorr
I'm confused why there is such a dissonance on the definition of "autopilot."
Most people are fully aware that commercial planes have at least one human
pilot in addition to an "autopilot," and I think the passengers on the plane
would be very unwilling to fly if the human pilots weren't present.
"chauffeur" seems like it would be misleading for partial self-driving
software, but "autopilot" seems spot on: helpful, but not good enough to
replace the human.

~~~
Theodores
Yes but it is a battle they have lost. Sometimes common sense does not
prevail. Particularly in the media.

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sunstone
While it's true that with current roads the self driving car software solution
may not converge to an acceptable solution, it's also true that as the
software gets better municipalities will start to modify their streets and
roads to assist the software. At that point the combined solution will very
likely converge to a "better than human" result.

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antmanler
"Survey participants were asked questions including whether they thought it
was safe to take their hands off the steering wheel"

I think this is misleading, Autopilot never told it's safe enough to let hands
off the steering wheel. To this extend of course there is no difference than
other solutions.

~~~
Dylan16807
What's misleading? If they think it, they think it, and the _intentional
implications_ of advertising are just as important as the words it uses.

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bayareanative
Reminds me of the YT videos of people caught sleeping in the drivers' seats of
their Teslas on their ways to work. It's a behavior that should be possible
but isn't yet assured to be safe enough to be allowed. #Affluenza

~~~
camjohnson26
It isn’t safe at all, please please no one ever do this. People have died on
autopilot and sleep may have been involved. Just because your car won’t kill
you for the first hour of sleep does not mean that it won’t at some point over
the next few years. Auto accidents are actually pretty rare things to
individuals and it’s very easy to normalize extremely unsafe behavior.

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agumonkey
Off when a technology promise too much but cannot deliver without constantly
monitoring. You feel like forming an autistic taxi driver.

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DeonPenny
The fact that Tesla says not to take your hands off the wheel, built security
for this, and have made it clear it's not at that level while people still do
so is not their fault.

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jlogsdon
There are plenty of video interviews where Musk himself shows using auto pilot
with his hands off the wheel.

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jlogsdon
It's even on their official sites demo video! As shared in another comment
[https://www.tesla.com/autopilot](https://www.tesla.com/autopilot)

~~~
valine
It clearly states that the functionality in the video is coming in a future
update. Its a video showing what the model 3 hardware is capable of once the
software and regulation catches up.

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trimbo
> once the software and regulation catches up.

What regulation needs to catch up?

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camjohnson26
There is none.

