Pay Attention! Tesla’s Autopilot Will Lock Out Lackadaisical Drivers

[FrodosPet]

Pay Attention! Tesla’s Autopilot Will Lock Out Lackadaisical Drivers

Several accidents involving Tesla’s driver-assist feature have prompted some changes.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602264/pay-attention-teslas-autopilot-will-lock-out-lackadaisical-drivers/

by Michael Reilly August 29, 2016

~ snip ~

Both have been compared to Tesla’s Autopilot, and all three promise features like tracking other cars on the road and keeping you in the lane as you drive—mainly stuff designed to make highway driving easier.

But the Tesla system, which was also the first to market, has been associated with several accidents over the last few months. Those, coupled with accounts of drivers napping and doing other unsafe things behind the wheel, have led to significant criticism about Autopilot’s safety.

Tesla now appears to be addressing those concerns by punishing drivers who don’t pay sufficient attention to the road. When drivers take their hands off the wheel for more than a few seconds, the car will chime a warning. If the warning is ignored, Autopilot will disengage. The systems from Mercedes and Nissan both do the same thing, but according to Electrek, Tesla plans to take things a step further:

According to sources familiar with the Autopilot program, Tesla will add a safety restriction that will result in not only the Autopilot disengaging after alerts are repeatedly ignored, but also blocking the driver from re-engaging the feature after it was automatically disengaged.

~ snip ~

[napi21]

1. Gives validation to "My car's pissed at me again!" nt

[longship]

2. Wait a minute. I just read in another thread that autonomous vehicles are right around the corner.

I think the poster was Ray Kurzweil, or somebody. I'm just not sure. But the poster was very sure that cars will all be driving themselves REAL SOON NOW!

[scscholar]

3. Disengaging will cause accidents

I guess that sells more cars.