[cfm56d7b]

According to the article, "two crash victims were born in 1962 and 1951."

Greater wisdom with age apparently does not apply in this tragic instance.

Semi-autonomous driving in a world where there are still other drivers piloting their vehicles with a nearly complete loss of memory (yes - using turn signals is helpful to other drivers) creates more risks - not fewer risks.

[GuidoK]

I don't own a Tesla, but how can that car even drive with not anyone behind the wheel?
I thought that wasn't allowed yet, and that the car, besides the simple occupance sensor in the seat also had software that requires driver input now and then.
Or are those parameters subject to change on regional basis and the US is different than say Europe?

[ky0u]

Originally Posted by M2Pilot

Even is "Self driving" mode I believe your hand has to be on the wheel. Sounds like they bypassed it some way. People being stupid...imagine that.

Oranges. Owners originally bypassed it by wedging an orange in the steering wheel to emulate human contact

Originally Posted by GuidoK

I don't own a Tesla, but how can that car even drive with not anyone behind the wheel?
I thought that wasn't allowed yet, and that the car, besides the simple occupance sensor in the seat also had software that requires driver input now and then.
Or are those parameters subject to change on regional basis and the US is different than say Europe?

Not sure on regional coding, but people always find a way to bypass sensors. An overly simplified parallel here would be our seat occupancy sensors on the e9x which have a habit of breaking and throwing up a permanent SRS error. How many people actually fix that properly vs buying a bypass dongle to shut their cars up

[Busa Dave]

Eventually litigation and possible Federal intervention will end up hurting this company.

[FC4]

Originally Posted by Busa Dave

Eventually litigation and possible Federal intervention will end up hurting this company.

Only if they don't go bankrupt beforehand. They've been teetering on insolvency for the last 7 years. They can fold any minute.

I don't know how or why anyone could trust a computer with the safety of their life. They have a mind of their own. What if the car just accelerates or turns whenever it wants to? What about someone on the dark web hacking the car and taking over the controls?

[RM7]

Originally Posted by Busa Dave

Eventually litigation and possible Federal intervention will end up hurting this company.

No way, corporations are people too.

[nazali]

If no one was driving, then who was at fault and who can the family of the deceased sue?

[Buug959]

I suggest they go after the guy that showed up at the hospital with all kinds of road rash from leaping from the drivers seat of an out-of-control Tesla the day after the incident. Barring that scenario just be thankful that the world is now two stupid idiots less and carry on. No lawsuit here.

[yco]

they should put a decent upper speed limit for autopilot..

[Darth One]

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

According to the article, "two crash victims were born in 1962 and 1951."

Greater wisdom with age apparently does not apply in this tragic instance.

Also means they likely did this too late to take themselves out of the gene pool

[DETRoadster]

I'm curious as to how this even happens. Certainly there's some safety feature that requires a butt to be in the driver's seat to activate and continue to use autopilot.

[Buug959]

Originally Posted by DETRoadster

I'm curious as to how this even happens. Certainly there's some safety feature that requires a butt to be in the driver's seat to activate and continue to use autopilot.

Idiots will find a way to defeat those safeguards and then sue Tesla when they crash.

[erickonphoenix]

me and some dude on discord were trying to figure out how the Tesla could self drive without a driver. I thought you had to have contact with the steering wheel.

[Buug959]

Originally Posted by erickonphoenix

me and some dude on discord were trying to figure out how the Tesla could self drive without a driver. I thought you had to have contact with the steering wheel.

Tesla only requires intermittent contact with the steering wheel and even that feature is easily defeated with a water bottle.

[eljay]

In Canada, you lend your car, you lend your insurance. i.e. you, the owner, are liable whether it is you, your friend, your pet, or your plush toy "driving" the vehicle.

[M_Six]

The truly disturbing part was that fire. 4 hours and 32,000 gallons of water to extinguish it. WTF? And how much of all that runoff was toxic?

[erickonphoenix]

Originally Posted by LemansE90335xi

Tesla only requires intermittent contact with the steering wheel and even that feature is easily defeated with a water bottle.

Damn, talk about a banana in the tailpipe trick

[DETRoadster]

Originally Posted by M_Six

The truly disturbing part was that fire. 4 hours and 32,000 gallons of water to extinguish it. WTF? And how much of all that runoff was toxic?

You wonder why Li-Ion battery containing products ship Hazmat? This is why!

All that water was serving to cool the batteries that were in thermal overrun. You gotta get them cool in order to stop the chain reaction and self-ignition.

32k gallons also sounds really impressive but when you figure that a typical pumper truck can deliver 1500 GPM, you're talking more than 20 minutes of hosing that thing down to bring it under control! Crazy!

[Vivek.]

It is POSSIBLE to activate the 'Autopilot' system and then jump out of the driver's seat. It was never designed to be used this way, there are multiple warnings against doing anything of the sort, the car will request input via the steering wheel--but this could be given from another seat. Tesla doesn't seem to rely on a seat occupancy sensor for driver 'attention', which I think is odd and an oversight. At the end of the day I don't consider it my car's responsibility to protect me from my own negligence.


Completely irresponsible on the part of the occupants--but this is all assuming that there was no one in the driver's seat at the time of the accident which I think is unclear. There's still a possibility that the heat of the fire prompted the driver to switch seats before perishing from the flames, which doesn't seem to be mentioned in any article. If this is the case then it's no different than the thousands of other accidents that occurred Saturday night.

[DETRoadster]

Originally Posted by LemansE90335xi

Idiots will find a way to defeat those safeguards and then sue Tesla when they crash.

I see the formula here: 1 Tesla + 2 Dipshits + 1 case of beer + 1 Water bottle + 1 Cinderblock in the front seat = This crash.

We will only see more and more of this sort of thing as Tide pod eating kids grow up and become drivers....

[Buug959]

Originally Posted by erickonphoenix

Damn, talk about a banana in the tailpipe trick

Yeah, despite all of Tesla's hooplah about auto pilot it's just not ready for widespread use IMO. There are just too many stories about its failures. I know there'll be people that say it's the idiots and their hacks that are the problem but that just reinforces my point that autopilot isn't ready. If it was then its safety systems wouldn't be able to be defeated so easily and by such low tech means.

[Buug959]

Originally Posted by DETRoadster

I see the formula here: 1 Tesla + 2 Dipshits + 1 case of beer + 1 Water bottle + 1 Cinderblock in the front seat = This crash.

We will only see more and more of this sort of thing as Tide pod eating kids grow up and become drivers....

I bet the case of beer was in the drivers seat, no cinder block needed.