Quote:
Originally Posted by strat61caster
How did they rush? There was no preliminary date hyped, no crazy buildup. Even in '14 Musk was downplaying the capabilities just claiming intelligent cruise control and automatic lane change, two features already available by other auto manufacturers at that time.
If they thought it was unsafe they would have sat on it longer with no ill effects. The numbers are still positive for them with a better batting average than human piloted cars according to the press release claims.
Someone was always going to die in a self-driving car, and many more will in the future, whether it's a sensor failure, an oversight in the system, or an act of god with a tree falling on top of someone. Sitting still out of fear of an inevitability is a death sentence in itself, if mankind didn't take risks we'd still be in caves.
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It was rushed in the sense that it was released as a software update on existing cars as a beta option with (what appears to be) inadequate testing to ensure the existing sensors could handle it. If they thought it was finished there wouldn't be beta disclaimers that need agreed to prior to engaging it. Mercedes and BMW don't have that as far as I can find. I don't suspect it was a deliberate oversight, and maybe they even felt as through they did test enough; but when cars started crashing into things with the summon feature, and the autopilot uses the same sensors and similar programming with more speed, the latter should have been disabled.
To be clear, I do not place blame only on Tesla. While some media might mislabel it as so, it isn't a fully autonomous car and I am pretty sure Tesla doesn't say that it is. Additionally, the driver did agree to the beta disclaimers and should have been prepared to take over. Rigs do not accelerate quickly. This wasn't a car already at speed going through an intersection, it was a rig turning from a stop. It had enough time to get past the cab to the trailer as well. I am curious to see more details on whether the car slowed at all, how long the rig was obstructing the road, and if there were any actual failures of the system.
ETA:
http://jalopnik.com/does-teslas-semi...rom-1782935594