Tesla in the news...

[Like2Plan]

https://www.reuters.com/business/aut...ss-2021-04-19/

From the article, "The 2019 Tesla Model S was traveling at high speed near Houston, when it failed to negotiate a curve and went off the roadway, crashing to a tree and bursting into flames, local television station KHOU-TV said.

After the fire was extinguished, authorities located two occupants in the vehicle, with one in the front passenger seat and the other in the back seat of the Tesla, the report said, citing Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman.

The crash occurred as scrutiny is increasing over Tesla's semi-automated Autopilot driving system following recent crashes.
Autopilot was operating in at least three Tesla vehicles involved in fatal U.S. crashes since 2016. NHTSA has sent teams to at least three other Tesla crashes in recent weeks that were believed to be tied to Autopilot use.

Tesla advises drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel and pay attention while using Autopilot. However, some Tesla drivers say they are able to avoid putting their hands on the wheel for extended periods when using Autopilot."

This is a little scary. I wonder if that is for real--no one in the driver's seat or they just haven't located the driver?

[disneysteve]

I saw that. If there truly was nobody in the driver's seat, I hope the owner is subject to some type of criminal charges. Self-driving cars are far from being perfected. You still need to be in the seat paying full attention to everything happening. I don't think we'll see true autonomous vehicles for a very long time.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I don't think that there was a driver.

[disneysteve]

I don't think that there was a driver.

You have to be a special kind of stupid to do that. What the heck were they thinking?

[bjl584]

I heard that it took over 30,000 gallons of water to put the thing out.
Apparently the batteries burn white hot.

[Singuy]

Teslas cannot enable autopilot or any self driving features beside cruise control on residential roads with no lane markings. Also based on logged data AP was not enabled. People who owns the car knew every news station was speaking out of their butts because it's impossible for us to put the car into autopilot without lane markings and also defeating multiple sensors that will disable the car from self driving if no one is in the seats. Also it would take about 3000 gallons to extinguish the car but the fire fighters didn't know what to do and eventually contacted Tesla about it.

Anyways, it's another car crash with the driver accelerating to 60mph, lost control and hit a tree outside of their house. But since Tesla is involved we need to talk about it...
There has been 62 fatal Tesla crashes in the US past 3 years and believe me everyone of them ended up in the news. In comparison, Jaguar had 140 fatal crashes in the last three years. Jaguar sells 20-30k cars a year in the U.S. Tesla sells that many cars in a months in the U.S. How many Jag crashes end up in the news? Teslas are literally the safest car based on road based on deaths/1000 cars vs any other brand. However it's showcased to be this killing machine.


Elon Musk: Autopilot not used in Texas Tesla crash (cnbc.com)

Emergency Response Guide (tesla.com)

Which auto makes get in the most fatal crashes? (2021 Results) | AutoInsurance.org

[disneysteve]

Teslas cannot enable autopilot or any self driving features beside cruise control on residential roads with no lane markings.

That may be true but I saw a post elsewhere with a link to a video showing that autopilot can be enabled where there are lane markings but if the markings then stop, autopilot remains engaged. Any truth to that?

As I said, I think we are a long way from self driving cars.

[Singuy]

That may be true but I saw a post elsewhere with a link to a video showing that autopilot can be enabled where there are lane markings but if the markings then stop, autopilot remains engaged. Any truth to that?

As I said, I think we are a long way from self driving cars.

Yes the car will continue but start with warning chimes when it lose sight of lane markings.

Now the FSD Beta software releasing soon will self drive the entire thing. It can enable without lane markings, do 4 way stops, unprotected left turns, the whole 9 yards.

[disneysteve]

“Autopilot, which is now standard in Tesla vehicles, does not always perfectly identify lane markers — for example, it can confuse sealed cracks in the road or bike lanes with other lane markers.“

I can confirm that my Camry does this. The lane departure warning gets triggered when I turn on to my street when the sun is at a certain angle. It senses the tar line down the center of the street as a lane marker.

There is also a spot on my street where something triggers the BRAKE warning to flash. I have no idea why. It must also be a certain reflection that confuses the sensor.

[Singuy]

“Autopilot, which is now standard in Tesla vehicles, does not always perfectly identify lane markers — for example, it can confuse sealed cracks in the road or bike lanes with other lane markers.“

I can confirm that my Camry does this. The lane departure warning gets triggered when I turn on to my street when the sun is at a certain angle. It senses the tar line down the center of the street as a lane marker.

There is also a spot on my street where something triggers the BRAKE warning to flash. I have no idea why. It must also be a certain reflection that confuses the sensor.

Yup, old system is using lane markings as the end all be all. New system coming really soon uses vision AI vs relying only on lane markers. This is v8.2. of vision AI. V9 will integrate all the cameras into vision AI and ditch radar which will be a huge step change. Currently it's in the hands of 2000 people who are beta testing, including many youtube influencers. They are free to post all the wins and fails of this system. World wide release coming middle of this year hopefully. Full self driving is coming sooner than you think. It wouldn't be perfect..but for say mid size and low size cities it'll do most of it just fine.

[Singuy]

More info about the fire. Apparently it was not burning uncontrollably for 4 hours, but only for a few minutes. They also didn't call Tesla, but knew what to do using their emergency manual. See news is now no better than he said she said. No one vets anything anymore.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/neighborhood/woodlands/article/Woodlands-fire-chief-says-Tesla-fire-example-of-16113029.php

[bjl584]

More info about the fire. Apparently it was not burning uncontrollably for 4 hours, but only for a few minutes. They also didn't call Tesla, but knew what to do using their emergency manual. See news is now no better than he said she said. No one vets anything anymore.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/nei...f-16113029.php

Kinda makes you wonder how accurate the rest of the news is when it comes to things like the economy, politics, Covid, etc?
Is there any way to find out the truth and find out what's actually going on out there?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

How do you even drive without being in the seat? How do you know know that they don't have the beta update?

[ua_guy]

Teslas cannot enable autopilot or any self driving features beside cruise control on residential roads with no lane markings. Also based on logged data AP was not enabled. People who owns the car knew every news station was speaking out of their butts because it's impossible for us to put the car into autopilot without lane markings and also defeating multiple sensors that will disable the car from self driving if no one is in the seats. Also it would take about 3000 gallons to extinguish the car but the fire fighters didn't know what to do and eventually contacted Tesla about it.

Anyways, it's another car crash with the driver accelerating to 60mph, lost control and hit a tree outside of their house. But since Tesla is involved we need to talk about it...
There has been 62 fatal Tesla crashes in the US past 3 years and believe me everyone of them ended up in the news. In comparison, Jaguar had 140 fatal crashes in the last three years. Jaguar sells 20-30k cars a year in the U.S. Tesla sells that many cars in a months in the U.S. How many Jag crashes end up in the news? Teslas are literally the safest car based on road based on deaths/1000 cars vs any other brand. However it's showcased to be this killing machine.


Elon Musk: Autopilot not used in Texas Tesla crash (cnbc.com)

Emergency Response Guide (tesla.com)

Which auto makes get in the most fatal crashes? (2021 Results) | AutoInsurance.org

There's no sensationalism in "just another car crash" and networks need to fill their 24 hour stations with something.

The two takeaways are:

a) Self-driving systems have their limitations, if it was even a factor in this accident.

b) First responders need more training to handle electric vehicle fires, and specifically, lithium battery fires.

[Like2Plan]

How do you even drive without being in the seat? ?

That is what I am still wondering. Was there truly no one in the driver's seat?