It's like I said in several previous articles: "Partially self driving vehicles are either more dangerous or equally dangerous as fully self driving vehicles. If I'm correct, so far, 3? people have died from partially self driving or fully self driving vehicles so far.
One died from a fully self driving vehicle in Arizona pushing her bicycle across the street in the dark so even the camera from the car couldn't see her in time to save her life.
2 died (so far) from being on autopilot and not watching the road. The first one I know of was cut off somewhere between his neck and head into two pieces while traveling under a semi-truck trailer that his vehicle thought was a stationary sign at the side of the road. The driver at the time was watching a "Harry Potter" movie on the front flatscreen in the dashboard while he was suddenly cut in two pieces.
The 2nd one was also in Autopilot we learned today and wasn't watching what was happening. If you are going on "autopilot" it usually only works above about 15 to 25 miles per hour. But, if you read the instructions it says: "driver must ALWAYS be watching the road.
These three incidents took place in Florida, Arizona and now California. From my point of view all these accident might have been avoided if the drivers were present and awake and looking forwards at the time.
The one exception to this likely was the bicyclist in Arizona crossing a street in the dark without a cross walk and obviously not watching for traffic. This is the first fatality that I know of (human) in a self driving vehicle in the U.S.
begin quote from:Tesla: Autopilot was engaged in fatal California crash
A Tesla Model X vehicle was involved in the fatal crash on March 23 in Mountain View, California. On Friday, the company released a statement showing that the vehicle was engaged in autopilot at the time of the crash. Photo courtesy Tesla Motors.
March 31 (UPI) -- The Tesla car involved in last week's fatal crash in California was in an autopilot mode, the company said Friday.
Walter Huang, 38, who worked as an Apple engineer, died when the Tesla Model X collided with a barrier on Highway 101 in Mountain View, California.
"In the moments before the collision, which occurred at 9:27 a.m. on Friday, March 23rd, Autopilot was engaged with the adaptive cruise control follow-distance set to minimum," Tesla said in a statement. "The driver had received several visual and one audible hands-on warning earlier in the drive and the driver's hands were not detected on the wheel for six seconds prior to the collision."
Tesla said in its statement that the failure to repair the highway safety barrier exacerbated the crash.
"The reason this crash was so severe is because the crash attenuator, a highway safety barrier which is designed to reduce the impact into a concrete lane divider, had been crushed in a prior accident without being replaced. We have never seen this level of damage to a Model X in any other crash."
Tesla said Huang "had about five seconds and 150 meters of unobstructed view of the concrete divider with the crushed crash attenuator, but the vehicle (computer) logs show that no action was taken."
The company defended its autopilot mode, which gives the car semi-autonomous capabilities and has now been engaged in two fatal U.S. crashes, Wired reported.
"If you are driving a Tesla equipped with Autopilot hardware, you are 3.7 times less likely to be involved in a fatal accident ... The consequences of the public not using Autopilot, because of an inaccurate belief that it is less safe, would be extremely severe."
In a separate development, the company also recently ran into trouble with its Tesla Model S electric vehicles built before April 2016, finding excessive corrosion on bolts in very cold climates could cause power steering failure. The company recalled 123,000 Model S cars, its largest safety recall ever.
Note:
The power steering problem is serious because there is NO MECHANICAL LINKAGE whatsoever between the steering wheel and the front wheels. It is all completely electronic.(at least between the power steering unit and the steering wheel.)
So, this means in a complete power failure the ability to steer would be gone at ANY SPEED!
2nd Note: "I have actually driven a Tesla in "Automatic pilot" and even changed lanes "only using my turn indicator" with the car doing the rest. I have also ridden up to 120 miles per hour in less likely than 5 seconds pasted against the headrest of my seat. "Which is likely something I haven't experienced since drag racing with friends in the 1960s in 1956 Chevys and Fords while street racing then in Southern California (American Graffiti Style). The biggest difference is that a Tesla S doesn't have any gears but one (so it never shifts) it just runs at different RPMS up to a very high speed.
The reason I'm writing about all this is because I have studied Software and hardware since the 1960s and I can see (It is pretty obvious now) that it is going to be 20 to 50 years at present to make Partially or fully self driving vehicles safe enough for me to want to ride in one every day. Once in a while I can see myself doing this. But, from my point of view riding in a Tesla or other partial self driving vehicle is maybe "as safe as flying in a small plane with a student pilot."
In other words "To ride in one every day you are really taking your life in your hands "ESPECIALLY IN AUTOMATIC PILOT" no matter what the company might tell you to stay in business and make a profit.
However, it's also true that people who actually understand these vehicles and know fully what they can and can't do and know their limitations like I do might be safe at least 80% to 90% of the time and never have a serious maiming or serious problem.
It is people who exceed what is sane or practical who are going to die the most.
So, if you don't understand this technology enough and know it's potential limitations, you might be dead soon if you have one you own and drive in every day.
2nd Note: "I have actually driven a Tesla in "Automatic pilot" and even changed lanes "only using my turn indicator" with the car doing the rest. I have also ridden up to 120 miles per hour in less likely than 5 seconds pasted against the headrest of my seat. "Which is likely something I haven't experienced since drag racing with friends in the 1960s in 1956 Chevys and Fords while street racing then in Southern California (American Graffiti Style). The biggest difference is that a Tesla S doesn't have any gears but one (so it never shifts) it just runs at different RPMS up to a very high speed.
The reason I'm writing about all this is because I have studied Software and hardware since the 1960s and I can see (It is pretty obvious now) that it is going to be 20 to 50 years at present to make Partially or fully self driving vehicles safe enough for me to want to ride in one every day. Once in a while I can see myself doing this. But, from my point of view riding in a Tesla or other partial self driving vehicle is maybe "as safe as flying in a small plane with a student pilot."
In other words "To ride in one every day you are really taking your life in your hands "ESPECIALLY IN AUTOMATIC PILOT" no matter what the company might tell you to stay in business and make a profit.
However, it's also true that people who actually understand these vehicles and know fully what they can and can't do and know their limitations like I do might be safe at least 80% to 90% of the time and never have a serious maiming or serious problem.
It is people who exceed what is sane or practical who are going to die the most.
So, if you don't understand this technology enough and know it's potential limitations, you might be dead soon if you have one you own and drive in every day.
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