Only this time thankfully the driver and passenger are safe http://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/another-tesla-crash-reported-driving-under-autopilot/#ftag=YHF65cbda0?yptr=yahoo
Tesla is saying the Autopilot was not engaged at the time of the crash:
No, that is not what the article says. Tesla had “no data to suggest” that the driver-assist feature was “engaged at the time of the incident.”
So they don’t know if it was engaged or not.
Small irony: that stretch of turnpike was recently repaved and has the latest-design rumble strip on the right side to tell a driver he’s veering off the road.
Gee, wasn’t it enough to worry about drunks, and people texting and not paying attention, and falling asleep, and now I have to worry about cars without DRIVERS too.
It’s a crazy world out there.
This makes Headlines of sorts ,while hundreds of other daily crashes are ignored?
As an upsetter of the “status quo” Elon has a "tough row to hoe " perhaps a dose of humility is in order here.
This makes headlines exactly because they are self-driving cars. There is a group of people that want “driving” out of the hands of we meat bags and into the hands of computers. They report because this is a not good news for the technology they desperately want.
Totally agree on the “dose of humility” thoughts, Kevin!
Every solution brings new problems. This reminds me of an old saw in my industry. “If you idiot proof things they just build bigger idiots”.
Self driving cars are in their infancy. Expecting them to never have an accident would be like expecting a baby to pop out of the womb and start playing classical piano. It’s unrealistic.
I expect that in the very near future we’ll see daily drivers chock full of automatic braking, lane-holding, and visual aids technologies. Much of it will probably be mandated for all U.S. vehicles within 20 years.
The safety technology you mention is already available in affordable vehicles.
My preference is to be in control of things.
Look at the amount of money and engineering put into aircraft electronics. While generally aircraft are very safe, more than a few have left a smoking crater in the ground with body parts scattered everywhere because of an electronic hiccup.
“My preference is to be in control of things.”
Ditto.
That’s my preference too… but I can’t say I’ve not witness a whole lot of drivers every day who clearly aren’t as concerned about being in control. Like the one who hit me in the rear at a stoplight some weeks ago because he was busy “tuning [his] radio”.
the same mountainbike: “Self driving cars are in their infancy”. Exactly. At this point should they be placed in the hands of the general public? Most of these “drivers” don’t even open their owner manual.
Exactly. At this point should they be placed in the hands of the general public?
They aren’t.
MikeInNH: Of course they aren’t due to the fact that Tesla’s “autopilot” is not yet a “self driving car”. Self Driving Car is used in the titles of 3 discussions on this forum. Apparently 2 members of the general public thought they could “drive” like George Jetson.
No sarge, they shouldn’t. They aren’t “combat ready” yet. 
So many people just drooling at the mouth to put self-drivers on the road and I really fail to see the logic yet. The in-laws from Ohio are just apoplectic that their city could get federal money to put these in down town. Like we have spare federal money for this? And as if the buses aren’t bad enough to watch out for. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Maybe self driving patrol cars would be an idea and they just stop and you get in and they drive you to the station.
“Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.”
Like legal u-turns, for example
There are some areas, I wouldn’t even dream of such a thing, because I know an ugly accident would somehow occur
I really try to avoid legal u-turns, if at all possible. If going around the block takes longer, but is much safer, I often choose that option, instead
I just went off-topic again, as I usually do 