this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
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[–] samus7070@programming.dev 222 points 11 months ago (6 children)

The real crime is marketing the driver assist capability under the name autopilot when it is anything but that.

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 174 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Oh no, it's even worse than that.

It's the CEO and other staff repeatedly speaking of the system as if it's basically fully capable and it's only for legal reasons why a driver is even required. Even saying that the car could drive from one side of the US to the other without driver interaction (only to not actually do that, of course).

It's the company never correcting people when they call it a self driving system.

It's the company saying they're ready for autonomous taxis and saying owner's cars will make money for them while they aren't driving it.

It's calling their software subscription Full Self Driving

It's honestly staggering to me that they're able to get away with this shit.

[–] meleecrits@lemmy.world 85 points 11 months ago (6 children)

I love my Model 3, but everything you said is spot on. Autopilot is a great driver assist, but it is nowhere near autonomous driving. I was using it on the highway and was passing a truck on the left. The road veered left and the truck did as well, keeping in its lane the entire time. The car interpreted this as the truck merging over into my lane and slammed the brakes. Fortunately, I was able to figure out what went wrong and quickly accelerated myself so as to not become a hazard to the cars behind me.

Using Autopilot as anything more than a nice dynamic cruise control setting is putting your life, and other lives, in danger.

[–] Neato@kbin.social 53 points 11 months ago (8 children)

Holy shit. My car doing that once and I'd be a nervous wreck just thinking about using it again.

[–] Wrench@lemmy.world 29 points 11 months ago

I give teslas more room because I have been brake checked by them on empty roads before. These ghost brake problems are prevalent.

[–] snooggums@kbin.social 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I have had the adaptive cruise control brake on multiple Hondas and Subarus in similar situations. Not like slamming on the brakes, but firm enough to confuse the hell out of me.

Every time it was confusing and now I just don't use it if the road is anything but open and clear.

[–] buran@lemmy.world 23 points 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Honda’s sensing system will read shadows from bridges as obstructions in the road that it needs to brake for. It’s easy enough to accelerate out of the slowdown, but I was surprised to find that there is apparently no radar check to see if the obstruction is real.

My current vehicle doesn’t have that issue, so either the programming has been improved or the vendor for the sensing systems is a different one (different vehicle make, so it’s entirely possible).

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[–] Damage 8 points 11 months ago

Something like that happened to me while using adaptive cruise control on a rental Jeep Renegade, it slammed the brakes twice on the highway but for no clear reason. I deactivated it before it tried a third one.

[–] Alchemy@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Your cars actions could kill someone.

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[–] dylanmorgan 38 points 11 months ago

I think the real crime is vehicular manslaughter, especially the SECOND one.

[–] Neato@kbin.social 25 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Tesla should be playing wrongful death suits every time autopilot kills someone. Their excuses don't excuse the blatant marketing that leads people to believe it's a self driving car.

[–] 800XL@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

But you see that wasn't the vehicle's fault. It's been programmed perfectly. What happened was the fault of the pedestrians and driver for not properly predicting what the car would do.

maybe /s maybe not.

[–] Goferking0@ttrpg.network 8 points 11 months ago

no you see the issue is that the auto pilot stopped right before the accident so obviously it was entirely drivers fault, please don't check how much time was between it stopping and the accident

[–] raptir@lemdro.id 22 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Do we need to go through what autopilot in a plane or boat actually does again?

[–] kool_newt@lemm.ee 24 points 11 months ago (6 children)

It doesn't matter, Tesla cars are marketed to the public which isn't expected to know these things. To probably 90% of people "autopilot" means "drive automatically".

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[–] dexa_scantron@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If we do, then they shouldn't have picked a name that most people think does something it doesn't.

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[–] fiah@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

do we need to go through the differences in training, aptitude and intelligence between pilots, captains and your neighbor Greg again? Marketing it as "autopilot" to anyone who can sign a car loan is reckless and has killed people and will continue to kill people until they stop

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[–] doublejay1999@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

What does full self driving mean ?

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[–] Fox@pawb.social 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

It's a common misunderstanding that an autopilot system in an airplane does everything or even a lot of things. The most basic ones keep the wings level and nothing else. Of course Tesla is probably counting on that misconception to sell this feature, but actual pilots using any kind of autopilot are still on the hook to pay attention 100% of the time.

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[–] doublejay1999@lemmy.world 124 points 11 months ago (2 children)

2 murders, 23 grand. The mafia charge more.

If you wanna kill somebody, use a car.

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 39 points 11 months ago

The $11,500 "murder" add-on

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 16 points 11 months ago

Involuntary manslaughter ≠ murder

[–] qooqie@lemmy.world 98 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Wow the value of a life I guess. I don’t really know what can come close to the value of a life, but this doesn’t seem like it.

[–] burliman@lemm.ee 24 points 11 months ago (3 children)

What would be the value of life then? I’ll save you the answer: no matter how big the number you say, someone else will say bigger. Until it becomes priceless, which is the answer.

However death and accidental death isn’t always avoidable. And when we pin the fault on someone we cannot expect to say “priceless” is what they owe the victim’s family. So we assign an amount of money or time that hurts, and call it good.

Doesn’t mean life is worth that. And saying so doesn’t help anyone.

[–] a4ng3l@lemmy.world 59 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Sure but even looking a only the financial produce of one person for a family dwarfs the comical 23k here. And that’s not even looking at the emotional side of things. 23k is straight insulting imho.

[–] mindlessscrollingparrot@kbin.social 24 points 11 months ago

Two people were killed, so you're really talking 11.5k.

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[–] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 10 points 11 months ago (3 children)

The U.S. uses the value of statistical life VSL. Here are the numbers from the Department of Transportation over the last 10 years or so.

So, it is interesting and egregious that the driver needs only pay $23K and Tesla pays nothing at all!

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[–] TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world 81 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If you want to kill someone in the US with little consequences, run them over with a car.

[–] ladicius@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Germany the same. Small fine, three month without license, that's it for killing a human being.

[–] Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee 7 points 11 months ago (5 children)

If we're talking about an honest accident then how long do you think the jail term should be?

[–] sbv@sh.itjust.works 16 points 11 months ago (3 children)

"honest accident" is the crux of the question. If the driver was doing everything perfectly and some other party was entirely responsible for the accident, not much (maybe none?).

But, at least in my corner of Canada, most drivers are not behaving responsibly or adhering to the law. Speeding, following too closely, illegally passing, and using phones while driving are common. If a driver kills someone while doing something overtly dangerous, they deserve jail time.

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[–] psycho_driver@lemmy.world 60 points 11 months ago (1 children)

For fuck's sake I doubt if that would cover funeral expenses.

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[–] Commiunism@lemmy.wtf 54 points 10 months ago (2 children)

There's this saying about how if something is punishable by a fine, then it's only illegal for poor people.

I don't even have to finish this do I

[–] fosforus@sopuli.xyz 27 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Finland's fine system at least tries: some fines scale based on the perp's monthly income.

Example: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/06/finnish-businessman-hit-with-121000-speeding-fine

I'm unshamedly proud of this. Apparently Switzerland has the same system.

[–] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 10 points 10 months ago

I love this

[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago

There’s a joke that if you want to murder someone in America, make sure you do it in a car. Our courts are specifically tailored to avoid penalizing drivers for “accidentally” killing people.

[–] Alchemy@lemmy.world 51 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Anyone else tired of beta testing Tesla’s garbage just by being outside on the roads near these vehicles?

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[–] jabjoe@feddit.uk 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Fines = legal for a price.

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[–] maryjayjay@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

Civil suit. He's already been proven guilty

[–] Pxtl@lemmy.ca 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)
[–] KpntAutismus@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

the problem here is the law. there should be actual consequences, not fines. jail time for murder.

[–] aeharding@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Part of the reason why you don’t lose your license for killing someone with a car in the US is because it’s much more of a ‘punishment’ because of how car dependent the US is.

Also, keep in mind a lot of trips are 3 miles or less in the US, and most drive it, despite wanting alternatives to driving.

If someone is trying to get from A to B in a 2 mile trip and the government basically mandates people to drive that, can you really blame them if they end up killing someone accidentally? What if they accidentally kill themselves smashing into a tree? You might assign some of the blame to their driving, but would that solve anything in the long term? a large part of the blame should be assigned to this insane transportation system we’ve built where everyone needs to drive 2 miles to pick up a bag of milk.

TLDR prevention, not blame will reduce traffic violence.

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[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

You honor, I actually didn't wack anyone with this self actuating axe. I bought it and I told it to go chop wood. The people just happened to be too close to the axe. Yeah I was holding the axe but I wasn't actually putting any pressure. The tail was wagging the dog in other words.

Ok so $10,000.00. Fine? Oh alright I guess that'll teach me not to buy autonomous axes.

[–] Nacktmull@lemm.ee 10 points 11 months ago

Well, he didn´t do anything ... /s

[–] Roflmasterbigpimp@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

So $11.500 per Person. Huh. I would have guessed it that american Lives would be more expensive.

[–] testuserpleaseupvote@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

American taxpayers will pick up the rest of the bill. Nice subsidy for the rich.

[–] BlackNo1@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

uh is that it?

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