US authorities are investigating the first death potentially caused by self-driving technology. The driver of a Tesla car died in Florida in May after colliding with a lorry. Under scrutiny is Tesla’s Autopilot feature, which automatically changes lanes and reacts to traffic. In a statement, Tesla said it appeared the Model S car was unable to recognise “the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky” that had driven across the car’s path. The company said the crash was a “tragic loss”. The collision led to the death of Tesla driver Joshua Brown, 40. The driver of the truck, which was pulling a trailer, was unhurt.
Am a bit confused when it says “[the truck] had driven across the car’s path” which could mean the truck cut in too quickly, but no doubt it’ll take a long time to get the real details. Bit worrying if the car is using purely a visual system rather than backing it up with radar even if this is the auto braking system rather than changing lanes.
I read about this online earlier in the week.
Against a bright spring sky, the car’s sensors system failed to distinguish a large white 18-wheel truck and trailer crossing the highway, Tesla said. The car attempted to drive full speed under the trailer, “with the bottom of the trailer impacting the windshield of the Model S
Roymondo:
The Tesla system is not “driverless”. Apparently the guy was watching a film on another device in the car at the time.
No it isn’t, but if you market something as “autopilot” people are going to use it as such, regardless of how many times you put warnings in the manual.
A sad loss, more proof that our jobs aren’t under threat anytime soon.
don’t think its the full story as it has been reported the the artic turned left in front of the car,so maybe the artic driver had thought the car would slow down but “it” couldn’t tell the difference between the white trailer and the sky and run full pelt into the trailer . The truckdriver reported a harry potter film was playing.
i would think that Tesla will learn from this incident and update the system. i am surprised that it doesnt have radar as well as cameras to “see” whats ahead
so basically everyone using self driving cars in the early days are working as guinea pigs to perfect the system, and paying with their life when it goes wrong
The Tesla autopilot system isn’t “self driving”, it’s basically adaptive cruise control in conjunction with lane departure detection which steers to keep it within the lane.
The driver still has to be control and watch what is going on.
chrisdalott:
So basically everyone using self driving cars in the early days are working as guinea pigs to perfect the system, and paying with their life when it goes wrong
Statistically acceptable risks mate! Sad eh?
I’m sure Tesla will be saying that it’s only driver assist, so he should have been watching in order to take avoiding action…
This may be true, but it doesn’t account for human nature!
JIMBO47:
don’t think its the full story as it has been reported the the artic turned left in front of the car,so maybe the artic driver had thought the car would slow down but “it” couldn’t tell the difference between the white trailer and the sky and run full pelt into the trailer . The truckdriver reported a harry potter film was playing.
I read this and wondered how on earth the driver, who had been coming from the opposite direction, knew the Tesla driver had been watching a video, much less which video. He’d have been able to see the inside of the car only very briefly, if he was looking where he should have been.
