Photo: NH News
Tesla vehicles are known for the very high levels of safety they offer to those nestled inside, but for everyone outside, their weight isn't that much of an asset in case of a crash.
Even if it looks as though the main purpose of autonomous driving is to allow you to check your Facebook feed while cruising down the freeway, it's actually making the roads a much safer place for everyone. Because people are going to look at their phones no matter what, so you might as well make the cars capable of handling themselves.
Virtually all carmakers are involved in a self-driving project one way or another, but none has been more vocal about it than Tesla. Elon Musk's company has been making the boldest claims, so much so that some Tesla owners thought - and some still do - that their cars are already able to drive on their own. They're not, and we all know how this misunderstanding ended up for Joshua Brown.
But putting yourself in the spotlight as Tesla did has its drawbacks too. You might be the first name people think of when speaking about AI-controlled cars, but the subject will also pop up every time one of your vehicles is involved in an accident. For a short while, there was definitely a witch-hunting going on with everyone waiting for the next casualty caused by Autopilot.
Luckily, it didn't happen, but that doesn't mean the media stopped looking. Take, for instance, this Model S crash that happened yesterday in Wormerveer, Holland. The large electric sedan managed to hit three vehicles - a car, a scooter, and a bicycle (with the latter admittedly being an easy feat in the Netherlands) - before coming to a stop, injuring one person in the process.
The local media (NH News) hastened to talk about the Autopilot feature after witnesses described the EV as "out of control." There was nothing to suggest that was the case and the system is rarely used in urban areas, and yet the report included this mention. It's a clear example of how the media can plant seeds in people's minds by associating the Autopilot with this incident even though they had nothing to do with one another.
Funnily enough, the Model S involved was so old, it wasn't even equipped with the Autopilot suite at all, making its mention all the more pointless and ridiculous. The report does mention a "technical flaw" that caused the incident, which means Tesla still has some investigations to make after all.
Virtually all carmakers are involved in a self-driving project one way or another, but none has been more vocal about it than Tesla. Elon Musk's company has been making the boldest claims, so much so that some Tesla owners thought - and some still do - that their cars are already able to drive on their own. They're not, and we all know how this misunderstanding ended up for Joshua Brown.
But putting yourself in the spotlight as Tesla did has its drawbacks too. You might be the first name people think of when speaking about AI-controlled cars, but the subject will also pop up every time one of your vehicles is involved in an accident. For a short while, there was definitely a witch-hunting going on with everyone waiting for the next casualty caused by Autopilot.
Luckily, it didn't happen, but that doesn't mean the media stopped looking. Take, for instance, this Model S crash that happened yesterday in Wormerveer, Holland. The large electric sedan managed to hit three vehicles - a car, a scooter, and a bicycle (with the latter admittedly being an easy feat in the Netherlands) - before coming to a stop, injuring one person in the process.
The local media (NH News) hastened to talk about the Autopilot feature after witnesses described the EV as "out of control." There was nothing to suggest that was the case and the system is rarely used in urban areas, and yet the report included this mention. It's a clear example of how the media can plant seeds in people's minds by associating the Autopilot with this incident even though they had nothing to do with one another.
Funnily enough, the Model S involved was so old, it wasn't even equipped with the Autopilot suite at all, making its mention all the more pointless and ridiculous. The report does mention a "technical flaw" that caused the incident, which means Tesla still has some investigations to make after all.
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