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Tesla Autopilot Now 7th in Consumer Reports ADAS Ranking, No. 1 is Ford's BlueCruise

Those who think about buying a Tesla due to Autopilot or Full Self-Driving may change their mind after listening to Consumer Reports. The customer protection organization ranked 15 advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and left Autopilot in the 7th place. The first one was BlueCruise, an ADAS developed by Ford.
Consumer Reports states the Ford BlueCruise is the best advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) 16 photos
Photo: Ford
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Apart from the leader, Tesla also lagged behind Super Cruise (GM), Driver Assistance (Mercedes-Benz), Driving Assistance Professional (BMW), Safety Sense 3.0 (Toyota), and Travel Assist (Volkswagen). Rivian, Nissan, Honda, Volvo, and Hyundai offer worse systems than Elon Musk’s company.

One of the critical elements of BlueCruise and Super Cruise is the use of direct driver monitoring systems (DDMS). They help these ADAS keep the driver more engaged than any of the other software. Consumer Reports states DDMS is crucial to avoid overreliance on the ADAS, which has been pointed out as a critical element in most fatal crashes involving these systems.

DDMS points two infrared cameras to the driver’s face. If they look anywhere other than the road, the ADAS sounds an alarm to warn the person behind the wheel to keep paying attention. If the driver fails to do so, the system begins to slow the vehicle.

Driver monitoring requires a careful study of perception-reaction times, something that the Autopilot director said in a deposition he “would have to guess what those words mean.” Ashok Elluswamy also confirmed the 2016 Autopilot video that states “the car is driving itself” was staged, something The New York Times anticipated in 2021.

The deposition was taken under oath during Tesla’s trial on the lawsuit Wei “Walter” Huang’s wife filed against the EV maker. Huang was involved in one of the first known fatal crashes involving Autopilot. With all automakers using ADAS obliged to inform any such cases to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the number is currently at 26 deaths, including one in China that may be the very first. Gao Yaning died on January 20, 2016, months before Joshua Brown, which was supposed to be the first person killed in a crash involving Tesla’s ADAS.

Bloomberg recently revealed that Elon Musk commissioned that video. Although he told his engineers the footage would just present the software’s potential, he eventually said the video had to “feel like one continuous take.” He also dictated the disclaimer the footage presents: “The person in the driver’s seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself.” Few people seem to have realized how serious this is.

According to Consumer Reports, one of the reasons for Tesla to drop so much in its ranking is that the EV maker did not change it so much since it was first released. Instead, Tesla just added more features to it. DDMS would be a welcome one.
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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
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Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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