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Autopilot Prevents 40 Crashes per Day Where Drivers Mistakenly Press the Accelerator

A lot has been said about Autopilot and FSD safety in the past week, but Tesla’s Autopilot Software Director Ashok Elluswamy thinks the software can prevent crashes. He explains how Autopilot can avoid collisions and highlights some of the safety features baked in.
Autopilot prevents 40 crashes per day where drivers mistakenly press the accelerator 9 photos
Photo: WAD at CVPR via Youtube
Autopilot prevents 40 crashes per day where drivers mistakenly press the acceleratorAutopilot prevents 40 crashes per day where drivers mistakenly press the acceleratorAutopilot prevents 40 crashes per day where drivers mistakenly press the acceleratorAutopilot prevents 40 crashes per day where drivers mistakenly press the acceleratorAutopilot prevents 40 crashes per day where drivers mistakenly press the acceleratorAutopilot prevents 40 crashes per day where drivers mistakenly press the acceleratorAutopilot prevents 40 crashes per day where drivers mistakenly press the acceleratorTesla FSD Beta 10.69
Ashok Elluswamy spoke at the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) in New Orleans earlier this summer about Autopilot software and its collision-prevention capabilities. Tesla’s Autopilot director revealed that the software prevents around 40 crashes per day that would have been caused by human drivers mistakenly pressing the accelerator instead of the brakes. Elluswamy later published his workshop on Youtube and shared it on Twitter.

The “sudden unintended acceleration” (SUA) accidents are pretty common, which is why Elluswamy gave such an example. It happens when drivers press the accelerator pedal to the floor, thinking they’re pressing the brake pedal. The Autopilot software is clever enough to recognize this behavior when the car is heading toward a collision. In this case, the Autopilot “automatically cuts out the acceleration and presses the brake to prevent the humans from colliding.

Ashok shared videos from his workshop showing how Autopilot can prevent accidents. In one of the videos, we see a car that would’ve ended in a river had the Autopilot not intervened to save the day. In another video, the driver is trying to park, but they press the accelerator when they are trying to brake. The Autopilot prevented the car from crashing into a storefront.

Elluswamy also speaks of the cases where the Autopilot failed to prevent a crash from happening. This is “incredibly sad,” said Ashok, adding that “it’s kind of senseless to collide when we have a great system that can detect general obstacles.” Tesla’s software approach, explains Ashok in a Twitter tread, would allow the car to avoid “any UFO on the road.” The goal is to build a vehicle “that literally never crashes.

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About the author: Cristian Agatie
Cristian Agatie profile photo

After his childhood dream of becoming a "tractor operator" didn't pan out, Cristian turned to journalism, first in print and later moving to online media. His top interests are electric vehicles and new energy solutions.
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