
People doing ‘crazy things’ with Tesla’s autopilot are spoiling it for everybody - tempestn
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/11/05/people-doing-crazy-things-with-teslas-autopilot-are-spoiling-it-for-everybody/
======
lukev
Maybe they should have called it something other than "autopilot", then.

~~~
mikeash
I keep seeing this sentiment and I keep not understanding it. Many actual
autopilots are simple heading or altitude holding systems. The analogy to
Tesla's system seems just about perfect.

~~~
lukev
Real autopilots, sure.

Most people are exposed to autopilot systems only through movies where the
autopilot not only can fly the ship in combat, but make cappuccinos and (more
likely than not) has a sexy female voice.

~~~
mikeash
Got an example of something that isn't SF? The only one I can think of right
now is Otto from Airplane! whose capabilities are actually vaguely realistic,
even if his mechanics are a little... off.

------
unimpressive
Misleading title, this is an update on the previous story:

"Tesla chief executive Elon Musk is warning that some new limits may be coming
to the company's autopilot feature because of "some fairly crazy videos on
YouTube" showing drivers behaving dangerously while the car is in control."

~~~
tempestn
The title is the original from the story. You mean the story's title is
misleading because it paraphrases "crazy videos" into "doing crazy things"?

~~~
unimpressive
No I mean it's misleading in that it looks like every other news article that
came out about people doing dangerous stupid things with the autopilot, when
the actual story is that Tesla has responded to the glut of people doing
dangerous things.

------
stevecalifornia
The Chrysler 200 has 'autopilot'. It sees the lane and will steer for you
(within reasonable limits), however, it somehow detects when your hands are
not on the wheel and after 10ish seconds will sound an alarm, turn the dash
red and deactivate the auto-steering.

It seems like Tesla should do this.

~~~
mikeash
Tesla does this if the car loses confidence and thinks you might need to take
over. You can drive for quite a while completely hands-free, but only if the
road is good and the car is handling it well. I think this is a pretty good
way to do it, personally. I'd be sad if they dropped it to match the lowest
common denominator and required hands on the wheel always.

~~~
tzs
What does it do when operating hands-free if conditions change and it loses
confidence, but you ignore the signal to take over?

~~~
mikeash
It beeps at you with ever greater urgency, then if you still neglect it, it
puts on the hazard lights and stops the car.

------
manicdee
So people do stupid things with Audi autopilot on YouTube but nobody blinks an
eye.

One guy sits in the backseat of his Tesla, and everyone loses their minds!

Of course I can't find the video now, but last year an Audi driver posted
video of his car on autopilot, and he tried to move to the passenger seat but
bumped the steering wheel while doing so, cancelling autopilot, leaving him
not quite in the driver's seat with a car that was expecting manual control.

But hey, this time it's a Tesla so it gets the attention.

