Here’s a graphic that shows the relative motion of the Tesla and the truck.
I didn’t realize that they had been traveling in opposite directions. Then the truck made a left turn directly into the path of the oncoming Tesla, so the truck was broadside when the Tesla hit it and went under it. That’s a pretty major problem, that the autopilot couldn’t see a tractor trailer cutting directly across its path.
keith, no offence but I also thought you were being serious. Sometimes humor does not work well in places like this. I got flagged recently when posted what I thought was joke.
Well I’ll try to be a little clearer in the future. I would have used “sea story” but without an explanation, a lot of you would probably not understand what I meant. Maybe urban myth would have been better.
“I guess you and I don’t interpret story the same way.”
I wonder how the “Shaw” might have interpreted it.
Hmmmmm…
You know the comments on this being (the software) being a beta got me to thinking about when Apple or any tech company release beta softwares for their different Product lines, they always warn customers that it is indeed a beta and will have a lot of “bugs” so to download at your own risk sorta deal… Also that the betas are really only for use of developers to improve upon the betas . Now that’s totally different than what we have here but you think if tesla used the word beta they wouldn’t allow someone to use this feature driving at such high speeds… Either way it’s all very tragic.
The truck driver says the Tesla went through his trailer so fast that he didn’t even see it, and ended up 1/4 mile away where it ran into a telephone pole.
It went 1/4 mile and snapped the telephone pole after having its top sheared off under a trailer? Tesla driver must have been flying. That would also explain why the truck driver misjudged his turn.
Raises questions about how fast Tesla driver was going. No doubt we will hear about that; I assume Tesla can retrieve that data.
“I agree, we are a long way from actual self-driving cars.”
A long, long way. Perhaps never when you apply the human factor.
And how many lives have they saved? HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS</b
Do you have ANY data to back that statement up? There is no statistically significant drop in fatalities after 1989 when the first were mandated nor in 1994 when the lower powered bags started showing up in cars. Just the number of children and samll adults stopped dying at the rate they did with the high powered bags - my bad, there were 175 fatalities, 104 of which were children. Even NHSTA only estimates 6377 lives were saved by airbags from 1990 to 2008. And they are estimates since no one can accurately determine the outcome without airbags.
As for forcing car makers to put them in cars, GM offered them in some large cars in 1974-75 models years and the sell rate was so low, they dropped the option. They offered, the public didn’t buy them. The same has been true of optional ABS brakes. They offered, the public didn’t buy so the government had to mandate them because we can’t make decisions for ourselves.
Given the problem with Takata inflators, our mandated safety systems are still killing us.
Raises questions about how fast Tesla driver was going. No doubt we will hear about that; I assume Tesla can retrieve that data.
Yeah, this will be key. According to Telsa, when autopilot is engaged, camera recognition of signs and GPS is used to retrieve the speed limit of the road and post it on the dash. Speed, however, is set by the driver. On this road, the speed limit is 65 mph.
Do you have ANY data to back that statement up?You’re kidding right?? This a joke??
First off I said airbags AND seat-belts.
13,000 people a YEAR saved by seat-belts alone.
http://www.trafficsafetymarketing.gov/newtsm/tk-bua/SeatBeltTop5Flyer.pdf
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/esv/esv18/cd/files/18esv-000500.pdf
https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/811206
https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/811105
And there are HUNDREDS of more links just like those.
Joshua Brown a Navy Seal, was unmarried and had no children…It will be difficult, very difficult, for Mom & Dad to collect a huge settlement from Tesla Motors…He was violating all the rules of using the autopilot system…
I agree. He was also watching a “Harry Potter” movie at the time of the crash.
I also agree with MikeInNH. My wife was one of those lives saved in 2008. The Jeep was destroyed but she managed to escape with just a broken arm.
If the Tesla wasn’t speeding, the truck is at fault.
I would venture to say that seatbelts have saved many more lives then the “bomb bags” as to how many lives are saved ,how can you prove it?There may have been other factors involved ,I really dont trust the govt’s smoking mirror stats.But I will concede ,they are like statin drugs ,they probably have saved some peoples lives. Hundreds of thousands Mike ?Indeed ,its a wonder before their implementtation that only the best drivers survived,hundreds of thousands would make Darwin proud,the herd would become increasingly unfit, since airbags have been mandatory.(wonder why NASCAR doesnt use them?{oris it coming ?}
A hundred percent on the seat belts though.
At 13k/year (JUST IN THE US)…3-5 HUNDRED THOUSAND is extremely possible. I personally know 2 people who would have either been killed or very very very seriously injured if they weren’t wearing seat-belts. And figuring it out isn’t that difficult. Insurance companies keep very good stats on accidents. And they compare accidents of people wearing seat-belts to those that weren’t. A definitive patterns emerge. While there is a margin of error…they are very accurate.
Sorry Mike, I missed the “seatbelts” in that statement. Of course seat belts save lives, no argument there.
Back to the original point, seat belts were offered as an option by Nash in 1949 and made standard on the 1958 Saab GT 750. No regulation required them, Saab just did it. Most manufacturers had them as options by that time or shortly after. The US didn’t mandate lap belts until Jan 1, 1968, a few years after the UK and other European countries. The states didn’t start mandating their actual use until the middle 80’s.
In all cases the manufacturer’s offerings of safety products were long before the government legislated their installation. The legislation did not precede the adoption. NHSTA looked to existing technology and decided it should be standard. ABS, TPMS and Stability control all fall into that basket. The area where the government preceded the technology was emissions regulation and that was, and still is, the EPA. EPA didn’t define the technology, only the standard.
Early seat-belts were effective…but seat-belts by themselves caused their own kind of injuries. It wasn’t until the mid-70s when shoulder harnesses were mandated that made a significant difference driver safety.
Backstage, there is a stock play going on…Tesla Motors is trying to buy SolarCity with Tesla stock…If Tesla stock goes down, this deal becomes far more expensive for Musk and Tesla…
I don’t know how many lives saved can be attributed to seat belt, air bags etc. Statistically it is difficult to assign cause when more than one variable is changed at the same time.
But since the mid 70’s, we have gotten three point seat belts and seat belt usage has increased. We have gotten air bags, crush zones and reduced drunk driving. As a result, even though we have more vehicles on the road and speed limits have risen, traffic fatalities have trended downward at least until very recently.
I read or heard recently that deaths may be going up due to distracted driving. I can’t verify that though. Please don’t ask me to provide a reference.