Tesla Model S adaptive cruise control crashes into Van

What Hacker News said

Cites vmarsy · 2016-07 · on “Tesla's 'Autopilot' Will Make Mistakes. Humans Will Overreact”

> Here's another Tesla crash, from yesterday.[1] This is a Tesla rear-ending the corner of a stalled van on a highway. > [1] [this video] minor nitpick but this video is from May, this didn't happen yesterday, did you mean to link another video?

Critical Animats · 2016-07 · on “Tesla's 'Autopilot' Will Make Mistakes. Humans Will Overreact”

That's part of the problem. Tesla has two basic problems with their "autopilot". One is hype, and one is bad technical design. Tesla's "autopilot" is just automatic lane keeping and automatic cruise control. Mercedes and BMW have been shipping that for years. The other car companies have hardware to check if the driver's hands are on the wheel. Tesla not only didn't do that, they hyped those basic functions as being an "autopilot", as if they had something comparable to what Google has. Tesla has significantly overhyped their technology, to a dangerous level. Here's another Tesla crash, from yesterday.[1] This is a Tesla rear-ending the corner of a stalled van on a highway. This may be an "a

Critical Animats · 2016-09 · on “How Safe Is Tesla Autopilot?”

That's a superficial analysis. Tesla's MTBF has been discussed here before. For one thing, Tesla's auto-driving is only expected to work on freeway-type highways, and fatality rates for those are lower than for all driving. Tesla's "autopilot" now has a second fatality, in China.[1] There's dash cam video. "When it was approaching the road sweeper, the car didn’t put on the brake or avoid it,” a police officer said in the CCTV report. “Instead, it crashed right into it." Take a look at the photo. It's possible that the big rotating brush behind the street sweeper didn't produce a radar return. Remember, Tesla's radar is only at bumper height. Teslas are radar-blind at windshield height. The

Critical Animats · 2016-09 · on “Self-Driving Cars Must Meet 15 Benchmarks in U.S. Guidance”

The dash cam video was only released last week, in conjunction with a lawsuit. Now it's on all the mainstream news outlets, from the Wall Street Journal to the New York Times to Fox News. This is yet another "Tesla hit slow/stopped vehicle on left of expressway" accident. There are now three of those known, two with video, one fatal. Watch the video. The vehicle is tracking the lane very accurately. Either the driver is very attentive or the lane following system has control. Then, with no slowdown whatsoever, the vehicle plows into a stopped or slow-moving street sweeper. Here's one of the other crashes in that situation.[1] This was slower, so it wasn't lethal. There's another one where a

Critical Animats · 2016-10 · on “George Hotz cancels his Tesla Autopilot-like ‘comma one’”

Holtz's Twitter rant is at [1]. Cruise Automation was very lucky to be acquired by GM before they got a similar letter. Similarly, Otto being acquired by Uber. They were both proposing to sell similar add-on systems. Their valuations would have been much lower after receiving such letters. NHTSA has it right. "It is insufficient to assert, as you do, that 'your product does not remove any of the driver responsibilities from the task of driving'. As you are undoubtedly aware, there is a high likelihood that some drivers will use your product in a manner that exceeds its intended purpose." Did Tesla got a similar letter? They have exactly that problem and exactly the same excuse. Tesla claims

Critical Animats · 2016-11 · on “Nvidia on new self-driving system: “basically 5 years ahead and coming in 2017””

Reference for the 3 rammed cars "at speed"? Sideswipe of car stopped at inner edge of roadway in China: [LINK] Rammed stopped or slow moving street sweeper at inner edge of roadway in China. Driver killed: [LINK] Rammed stopped van at inner edge of roadway in Germany: [this video] Those are all the same design flaw - a big solid obstacle partly blocking the lane was hit. These all have dashcam video on Youtube. One wonders how many more times this has happened without a dashcam. This list doesn't include ramming the semitrailer in Florida, another fatal event. (Ref NSTB investigation HWY16FH018). (There's some denial from Tesla fans, and Musk, about this.)

Critical mikeyouse · 2017-03 · on “New Tesla accident”

Teslas have a serious problem avoiding stationary objects in traffic lanes, especially when following traffic. If you search YouTube for Tesla accidents, there are a big group where the car is following traffic in its lane and it doesn't yield to some object in its lane. Over and over again. From OP: [LINK] Fatal crash in China: [LINK] Another Chinese accident: [LINK] One in Europe: [this video] Another: [LINK] I don't know what system they're using, but they really need to get a handle on it. For as many accidents as they avoid, not hitting stopped objects is pretty important from a safety perspective.

Critical Animats · 2017-06 · on “Tesla Autopilot”

The future is here, just not from Tesla. Waymo and Volvo have systems which actually work. Waymo has real situational awareness, watching other road users and predicting what they might do next. Tesla is mostly following the lines on the road and stopping for interfering traffic. Here's Tesla's "Autopilot" killing someone.[1] This is the Mobileye "does not recognize obstacles protruding into left edge of lane" bug. Here's another crash from that defect.[2] Here's Tesla's "Autopilot" hitting a traffic barrier.[3] Again, it's an obstacle at the left edge of a lane. This is what happens when you take Level 2 lane-keeping and automatic cruise control and hype it into automatic driving. Other car