Tesla Model X goes off the road and crashes in Montana, driver blames the Autopilot

[FrodosPet]

I appreciate that some people being in a hurry for self driving cars, but we need to slow down. Even if they are better drivers than humans 90% of the time, it is the other 10% of the time when they are much worse.
[hr]
http://electrek.co/2016/07/11/tesla-model-x-crash-montana-driver-blames-autopilot/

Fred Lambert - 13 hours ago

Ever since the very publicized fatal Florida accident in a Model S while the Autopilot was activated, Tesla’s semi-autonomous driver assist system has been getting its reputation tarnished in the media. Autopilot took blame for a few subsequent incidents, despite nothing currently pointing to the system being the cause of any of the accidents – though NHTSA is now probing the Autopilot over two of them.

Now we learn of yet another crash where the Autopilot was reportedly at play. A Tesla Model X crashed in Montana Saturday night resulting in the SUV driving through a guardrail and going off the road. The driver blames the Autopilot but Tesla has yet to chime in…

Based on the pictures of the aftermath, the vehicle appears to be totaled with the front passenger side being completely torn off, including the wheel, but fortunately, both occupants are reportedly OK.

~ snip ~

The accident happened in Whitehall, Montana. Based on the pictures and the information relayed by his friend, the driver appears to claim that he was driving on Autopilot set between 56-60 mph on a road without a center divider, when the vehicle drove off the road and hit a road guard made of wooden posts (pictures via Eresan on TMC):

~ snip ~

Link to Tesla Motors Club message board posting: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/my-friend-model-x-crash-bad-on-ap-yesterday.73308/

[Wilms]

1. According to the article,

Tesla doesn’t recommend to use the Autosteer feature of the Autopilot on a road without a center divider..."

So that wasn't helpful. On the other hand, couldn't the car "know" that it was driving on such a road and refuse "Autosteered" operation?

[FrodosPet]

4. The key point relates to system capacity

I've noticed some people who either have restricted mobility, or who are worried about road safety, want the robots to hurry and start driving.

But these recent events with Tesla AutoPilot (which needs to be called something else ASAP) and the Google Self Driving car help to indicate a few things:

1. People will push a semi capable system past its capabilities.

2. The government needs to spend hundreds of billions of dollars painting road lines on EVERY road, improving and upgrading pavement, and upgrading / replacing inadequate signs and traffic devices.

3. There needs to be a strong, resilient, secure V2V (Vehicle to Vehicle) and V2X communications network.

Many rich people have a lot of money riding on this. So even though we are a decade or more of testing and development away, this tech is going to be coming to a public right-of-way near you soon. Get ready for more news stories about "Christine" cars killing and injuring people.

[Gabi Hayes]

2. If I had a car with a robodriver, I'd drive the shit out of it, and when it wore out, I'd crash, and

blame the robot!

who's to know?

yeah, yeah......but it could happen!

[liberal N proud]

3. Human nature to blame someone or something else.