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Tesla Owner Praises Autopilot for Avoiding Collision, We Don't Fully Agree

Ever since the Autopilot has become one of the main topics for the automotive press and the press in general, Tesla owners rallied behind their beloved boredom killer device and had started publicizing more the events where the semi-autonomous system helped prevent a collision.
Bobby Blackwolf and his Model S Autopilot half-crash 1 photo
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube
We've had a few of them before the tragic crash that happened on May 7, but it seems like they're starting to appear more often now. Last week we told you about an incident where the automatic braking function prevented a Model S from hitting a pedestrian in Washington, and now another somewhat similar example began to make headlines on the Internet.

This time, it all happened where the Autopilot best feels at home: the highway. Bobby Blackwolf, a Tesla Model S owner and public figure for those familiar with VOG, posted a video on YouTube where he claims that the Autopilot prevented a minor accident from turning into a serious pile-up. Fortunately, the video doesn't just feature Bobby talking about the event, but also the dashcam footage with views from both the front and the back of his vehicle.

Things went as follows: the cars in front of Bobby's Tesla began to slow down, at which point the car's Forward-Collision Avoidance system reacted, issuing an acoustic alert. This prompted Blackwolf to brake himself, as he claims the system noticed the gap shrinking before he could do it himself.

For some reason, Bobby is absolutely convinced that without the system, he would have hit the car in front, and he argues this by pointing out at what the Honda behind him did, which was to slam into the Model S. We can't deny the Autopilot helped with avoiding the initial crash, but we feel there's more to it than the simple explanation that Blackwolf offers.

First of all, a recent independent test revealed that the Autopilot likes to take risks, closing the gap to the car in front far below the recommended value - at 70 mph, Tesla's system only leaves 0.7 seconds from the car it's following. A responsible human driver shouldn't do that, which means he'd have a lot more time to react than in the situation they'd be put in by the Autopilot.

The second aspect we'd like to talk about is a little more subjective, but we've looked at the video, and we think it's totally plausible. Bobby claims that he did the braking himself when he heard the acoustic warning. The thing with these warnings (other brands have them as well, it's not something restricted to Tesla) is that they can sometimes make you overreact. Whenever something potentially dangerous happens, our initial default reaction is to brake. When the car also beeps like crazy, we're very likely to do it even harder.

In this case, it looks like Bobby focused too much on avoiding the crash with the car in front and ignored what was happening behind him. If you look at the video, the distance from the car in front after the actual emergency braking is over is of roughly two car lengths. So the Autopilot might have helped him from avoiding one crash, but it caused another, albeit indirectly.

And that's because even he did have his hands on the wheel and his feet on the pedals, an active semi-autonomous system (even a simple active cruise control) still detaches your mind from the road a little. And so when the car starts beeping, you tend to overreact, just to be sure. That's what we think happened here, and that's why we don't fully agree with Bobby. Watch the video below and see for yourself.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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