Regulators Open Investigation Into Fatal Crash in Tesla on Autopilot

[datbeme]

How do we know the driver didn't notice the tractor trailer?

[Speedy]

datbeme wrote:
How do we know the driver didn't notice the tractor trailer?

Because the brakes were not applied.

[Speedy]

IThe Tesla should have been programmed to have 'seen' the required conspicuity tape, if nothing else.

http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-67...code=WY860&gadtype=pla&id=S-6735&gclid=CLefkKGs0c0CFQ-raQodPRgLwA&gclsrc=aw.ds

I had a guy pull out in front of my big truck. The truck was painted metal flake silver and the (Mack) grill was flat aluminum. The road was two lane rural with no traffic. He said he didn't see me. This was long before cell phones, etc. I nailed the rear quarter on his '66 Buick Electra, my brakes locked, his never applied until after the collision as his car twirled.

[pRICE cUBE]

Paul F. wrote:
Facts don't matter to people reading these stories... it's going to be "Tesla's system sucks! It doesn't work! They're killing people! Elon Musk is nuts if the thinks people will accept this crappy system!" and Tesla's stock will go down by ten bucks... (whereupon I may buy another share or two... have to think about that).


[quote=space-time]
even if their system failed, it was still more reliable than human drivers, by quite a large margin.

We learned yesterday evening that NHTSA is opening a preliminary evaluation into the performance of Autopilot during a recent fatal crash that occurred in a Model S. This is the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles where Autopilot was activated. Among all vehicles in the US, there is a fatality every 94 million miles. Worldwide, there is a fatality approximately every 60 million miles. It is important to emphasize that the NHTSA action is simply a preliminary evaluation to determine whether the system worked according to expectations.

Exactly, it won't matter how rational the numbers are. It won't matter that an autopilot vehicle is better than someone driving drunk, drowsy, or distracted. Many people will now deem autonomous cars as less safe than human drivers.

[M A V I C]

Speedy wrote:
[quote=datbeme]
How do we know the driver didn't notice the tractor trailer?

Because the brakes were not applied.
Seems like a stretch. Not only that, but since the "driver" had it in autopilot, he probably wasn't paying as much attention as a driver normally should.

It would be interesting to see if the crash statistics vary by vehicle. Eg, does a comparably priced car crash more or less frequently.

[NewtonMP2100]

..................A driver was so enamored of his Tesla Model S sedan that he nicknamed the car “Tessy,” praised the safety benefits of its “Autopilot” system and was watching a Harry Potter video when he became the first person to die in a wreck involving a car in self-driving mode.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced the driver’s death Thursday, and said it is investigating the design and performance of the Autopilot system.

Joshua D. Brown of Canton, Ohio, the 40-year-old owner of a technology company, was killed May 7 in Williston, Florida, when his car’s cameras failed to distinguish the white side of a turning tractor-trailer from a brightly lit sky and didn’t automatically activate its brakes, according to statements by the government and the automaker. Just one month earlier, Brown had credited the Autopilot system for preventing a collision on an interstate.

Frank Baressi, 62, the driver of the truck and owner of Okemah Express, said the Tesla driver was “playing Harry Potter on the TV screen” at the time of the crash and driving so quickly that “he went so fast through my trailer I didn’t see him.”

The movie “was still playing when he died,” Baressi told The Associated Press in an interview from his home in Palm Harbor, Florida, saying the careening car “snapped a telephone pole a quarter mile down the road.” He acknowledged he didn’t see the movie, only heard it.

Tesla Motors said it is not possible to watch videos on the Model S touch screen. There was no reference to the movie in initial police reports.

Brown’s published obituary described him as a member of the Navy SEALs for 11 years and founder of Nexu Innovations Inc., working on wireless internet networks and camera systems. In Washington, the Pentagon confirmed Brown’s work with the SEALs and said he left the service in 2008......

[space-time]

My question is: did the trailer made an illegal turn? was there any kidn of traffic signal? or if it was an intersection without traffic lights, didn't the Tesla have the right of way? Seems like all blame is on the tesla driver, but is the tractor trailer's driver innocent?

[M A V I C]

Looks like the Tesla had the right of way. That said, if it couldn't recognize what was going on, that's a serious problem. They seem to be blaming the fact that the side of it was white. What if it was a flatbed trailer? It would seem the Telsa thought the semi was a car, and thus could make it through after the cab cleared the intersection.

I'm actually surprised a self driving car got something this simple so wrong. I still don't see myself owning a self driving car, or at least operating one in auto pilot.

[mikebw]

Maybe the Tesla brain KNEW about the truck and decided there was nothing that could be done, any other course of action would have resulted in more deaths.

[space-time]

mikebw wrote:
Maybe the Tesla brain KNEW about the truck and decided there was nothing that could be done, any other course of action would have resulted in more deaths.

that is one interesting theory, and looking at the image above, I wonder what a human driver could have done. It is difficult to estimate the actual scale, speed, position of Tesla and Trailer decided to turn left, etc. Maybe a human driver could not have done much. Maybe Tesla realized this, may not. But if it did, and decided that something else could have resulted in more deaths, that is scary. Should the car sacrifice one life of its owner/passenger to save more lives of some strangers?