Felony charges are 1st in a fatal crash involving Autopilot

[turbinetree]

Source: Associated Press

By TOM KRISHER and STEFANIE DAZIO
10 minutes ago

DETROIT (AP) — California prosecutors have filed two counts of vehicular manslaughter against the driver of a Tesla on Autopilot who ran a red light, slammed into another car and killed two people in 2019.

The defendant appears to be the first person to be charged with a felony in the United States for a fatal crash involving a motorist who was using a partially automated driving system. Los Angeles County prosecutors filed the charges in October, but they came to light only last week.

The driver, Kevin George Aziz Riad, 27, has pleaded not guilty. Riad, a limousine service driver, is free on bail while the case is pending.


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-only-on-ap-california-united-states-91b4a0341e07244f3f03051b5c2462ae

[Baitball Blogger]

1. Told you so.

I can't believe people argued in favor of these things as if there would be no casualties along the way.

Whoever is selling this product better have a nice kitty for all the civil lawsuits that will occur from failed systems.

[turbinetree]

2. Cars and trucks are not like airplanes with autopilots which are in very controlled environment

Cars and trucks are not in a very controlled environment, they really are not....

[ck4829]

3. There are hundreds of thousands of vehicles with this technology on the road and we're all alive

Makes me wonder what the ratio of the number of vehicles with autopilot linked to crashes, injuries, and fatalities compared to the number of vehicles without it linked to crashes, injuries, and fatalities is.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. Hundreds of thousands?

Really? How many of those cars are completely functioning under this technology? Is it up to the driver to decide when to surrender full control?

You know the number of these crashes that I project will get mercy from a jury: 0

[pecosbob]

5. The 'driver' ran a red light and killed two people, not the car. Pretty simple to resolve.

I wonder exactly WHO it was that thought it a bright idea to put video games and a cruise/steering control button in the same vehicle?

[MichMan]

6. Need to recall them all and remove it from the software

[ck4829]

7. The steering wheel with a non-assisted driver needs to be recalled and removed

You know how unsafe THAT is, right?

[RAB910]

8. At the end of the day, the driver is responsible for the actions of his vehicle

doesn't matter what features that vehicle may or may not have

[cbabe]

9. As a friend once remarked, 'I don't trust my toaster to work right. Why would I trust a car?'

[cinematicdiversions]

10. The current self driving software is amazing however.

[Sapient Donkey]

12. That's pretty impressive. Now try at night!

Seems awesome for people who will use it responsibly, but it really sucks how many stupid people are out there.

[Mawspam2]

14. Do you know what that road has?

Freshly painted lane lines. Do the same test after a hard winter snow where the lines have been obscured with snow, ice, cinders and salt. Your super Tesla is going to be flying over a cliff.

[madville]

16. I was recently watching some of the self driving Beta streams

It had many problems with pedestrians (especially jaywalkers) and double parked cars in congested environments.

If people want to risk their freedom in order to have self driving that’s on them, I would possibly support enhanced sentences for fatalities resulting from autopilot/self driving functions, to encourage the human to pay attention.

[Sapient Donkey]

11. This should be interesting to watch.

[ripcord]

15. Tesla autopilot gives a warning

The software is in testing and the driver needs to be behind the wheel and alert, obviously this driver ignored that warning and has no one to blame but himself.

[Zorro]

13. So last week I drove 2500 miles mainly using Autopilot

Pretty much Interstate the entire way. No real issues.

Autopilot is great for such drives-- it's a stress-reducing way to travel long distances -- but one has to be aware of its limitations; it's even listed as "Beta" on the display. My Autopilot V1 doesn't recognize red lights, and I'm not sure if Autopilot V2 does, either.

It also incorporates a "nag" function that requires the driver to jiggle the steering wheel every 30 seconds or so to keep the driver aware; if one misses the jiggle then you'll get an audio and visual alert that Autopilot is disabled, and that the driver will now have to do the driving until the vehicle is stopped and parked.