Photo: Collage of images posted by Eresan
Tales of Tesla cars being involved in crashes while using the Autopilot are quickly starting to lose most of their newsworthiness as they seem to happen one very week, with the rate having nowhere but up to go.
Ever since this assisted-driving feature was introduced, some people saw it a scapegoat in case the messed up and crashed. Shortly it became apparent that Tesla knows all too well whenever you activate this function (it probably knows more than that), so saying it was on when it actually wasn't is not an option.
Then, the real Autopilot crashes started to show up. Some are still being investigated by Tesla or third party entities (NHTSA being one of them), but they all have one thing in common: the drivers abused the Autopilot, probably confused by the conflicting messages Tesla is sending out regarding what its system can do, and how it should be operated.
The latest one to surface happened Saturday night (technically it's Sunday morning as it was 2 a.m.) on a road in Montana and it involved a Model X SUV. The driver claims that the vehicle went off-road while being under the control of the car's software. The incident was made public by a friend of the owner on the TeslaMotorsClub.com forum, and he also provided a set of pictures.
According to the sketchy description, the car was traveling down the MT-55 with the Autopilot activated "at speed between 56-60 mph." The initial report says that the car's sensors failed to detect "a wood stake on the road" and that it then went on to "hit more than 20 wood stakes." This makes it sound like it happened in the land of wood stakes, but in fact, it looks like neither the owner, neither his friend are native English speakers and those "wood stakes" are in fact bollards.
Some pictures posted a bit later show these short bollards sitting about two feet off the edge of the road, with a visible white line separating the asphalt from the dirt. Judging from the very little information we have, all signs point toward another case of Autopilot misuse. The Model X was completely destroyed as a result - the pictures speak for themselves - but the cars occupants walked out just fine.
Still, activating Autopilot on a road like that (single lane, out in the middle of nowhere with no other cars around) and at night is basically asking for trouble. If Tesla wants to do something to limit this type of incidents, I would suggest two things: first, renaming the Autopilot and never mentioning it again until it actually is an autopilot; second, I would make an Autopilot crash course mandatory for anybody taking delivery of their brand new Tesla. You can't rely on people reading the manual or the instructions with something this important.
Then, the real Autopilot crashes started to show up. Some are still being investigated by Tesla or third party entities (NHTSA being one of them), but they all have one thing in common: the drivers abused the Autopilot, probably confused by the conflicting messages Tesla is sending out regarding what its system can do, and how it should be operated.
The latest one to surface happened Saturday night (technically it's Sunday morning as it was 2 a.m.) on a road in Montana and it involved a Model X SUV. The driver claims that the vehicle went off-road while being under the control of the car's software. The incident was made public by a friend of the owner on the TeslaMotorsClub.com forum, and he also provided a set of pictures.
According to the sketchy description, the car was traveling down the MT-55 with the Autopilot activated "at speed between 56-60 mph." The initial report says that the car's sensors failed to detect "a wood stake on the road" and that it then went on to "hit more than 20 wood stakes." This makes it sound like it happened in the land of wood stakes, but in fact, it looks like neither the owner, neither his friend are native English speakers and those "wood stakes" are in fact bollards.
Some pictures posted a bit later show these short bollards sitting about two feet off the edge of the road, with a visible white line separating the asphalt from the dirt. Judging from the very little information we have, all signs point toward another case of Autopilot misuse. The Model X was completely destroyed as a result - the pictures speak for themselves - but the cars occupants walked out just fine.
Still, activating Autopilot on a road like that (single lane, out in the middle of nowhere with no other cars around) and at night is basically asking for trouble. If Tesla wants to do something to limit this type of incidents, I would suggest two things: first, renaming the Autopilot and never mentioning it again until it actually is an autopilot; second, I would make an Autopilot crash course mandatory for anybody taking delivery of their brand new Tesla. You can't rely on people reading the manual or the instructions with something this important.
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