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Tesla's Autopilot Mode Reportedly Saves Pedestrian's Life (electrek.co) 219

An anonymous reader writes: Following reports of Tesla's Autopilot mode being linked to a fatal crash, one Tesla Model S owner is reporting that the Autopilot mode has likely saved a pedestrian's life. The driver sent an email to Elon Musk explaining the situation, which was confirmed by Tesla through the vehicle logs: "I wanted to let you know that I think my car probably saved the life of a pedestrian last night, 7/16 around 10:30pm when I was driving in Washington DC with my daughter." The driver says him and his daughter were trying to locate where sirens were coming from "when a pedestrian stepped out in front of [their] Model S in the dark with dark clothes and in the middle of the road." The car slammed on its breaks before he could and "stopped just inches from hitting the pedestrian." The driver said, "I am not sure if I would have been able to stop before hitting him but I am so glad the car did." The Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), which is standard on all Tesla vehicles and is part of Tesla's Autopilot mode, is what was at work here. It appears that many of the convenience features of Autopilot were not activated at the time of the incident. This is likely the first of many good press stories released by Elon Musk, who said he would consider releasing the stories of accidents prevented by the Autopilot mode with the authorization of the Tesla owners and by confirming the events through the vehicle logs. Elon Musk did also announce Tesla's 'Master Plan, Part Deux,' which includes new kinds of Tesla vehicles, expanded solar initiatives, updates on Tesla's 'autopilot' technology, and a ride-sharing program.
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Tesla's Autopilot Mode Reportedly Saves Pedestrian's Life

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  • by turkeydance ( 1266624 ) on Thursday July 21, 2016 @06:53PM (#52557863)
    ESL post
  • by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Thursday July 21, 2016 @07:14PM (#52557947)

    The driver says him and his daughter were trying to locate where sirens were coming from "when a pedestrian stepped out in front of [their] Model S in the dark with dark clothes and in the middle of the road." The car slammed on its breaks before he could and "stopped just inches from hitting the pedestrian." The driver said, "I am not sure if I would have been able to stop before hitting him but I am so glad the car did." The Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), which is standard on all Tesla vehicles and is part of Tesla's Autopilot mode, is what was at work here. It appears that many of the convenience features of Autopilot were not activated at the time of the incident.

    So what happened is the driver was driving the vehicle, a situation happened for which he was unprepared but was a probable accident, and the AI took over and prevented the accident.

    Almost no one is complaining about this scenario, and if I recall other car companies have deployed something similar and it's a decent first step towards autonomous vehicles.

    The problem with the "autopilot" is it essentially allows the AI to do all of the driving, meaning the human invariably stops paying attention and the AI becomes almost exclusively responsible for driving safely.

    Its great that the AI is good enough that it prevented this accident, it still doesn't make the pseudo self-driving mode a good idea.

    • by Jeremi ( 14640 )

      he problem with the "autopilot" is it essentially allows the AI to do all of the driving, meaning the human invariably stops paying attention

      Invariably? Really?

      • The problem with the "autopilot" is it essentially allows the AI to do all of the driving, meaning the human invariably stops paying attention

        Invariably? Really?

        Actually, yes -- pretty much. Or rather, I wouldn't say "stops paying attention" -- more like "reduces attention to driving and redirects significant attention toward secondary tasks." There are a number of studies out there which show this already happens even with basic cruise control and has been measured in a lot of different ways (attention to other tasks, increased reaction time, etc.). Now introduce a system where even less attention is required, and the vast majority of people will significantly r

        • Exactly. Besides, isn't Tesla Autopilot only supposed to be enabled on highways? In that case, where did the pedestrian came from?

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      TFA is confusing Autopilot and automatic braking, which many cars have and is a separate function that you can't normally disable. In fact it will be mandatory on all new cars in the EU and I believe the US soon.

      This is nothing to do with Autopilot or self-driving.

    • by idji ( 984038 )
      Didn't people make these complaints with automatic transmission, cruise control, ABS etc? Everyone is scared that new "auto-tech" makes things unsafer and that people pay attention less. No, people get used to it and things just get better. the same will be so when all are used to autopilot.
    • by trawg ( 308495 )

      Everything you say is true - but I would argue that what is important are the actual results. If the number of lives saved by the current implementation of the Autopilot system is greater than the number of deaths it causes, then surely we're better off with it - even if some of the deaths are the result of boneheaded behaviour by clueless inattentive drivers who are mistakenly assuming it is driving the car for them.

      At the moment there are only a few high-profile stories from both sides of the fence (like

    • The problem with the "autopilot" is it essentially allows the AI to do all of the driving, meaning the human invariably stops paying attention and the AI becomes almost exclusively responsible for driving safely.

      That's certainly a concern though I think perhaps an overblown one. There might be an "uncanny valley" between crude automation like Tesla's technology and fully automated driving where people have a hard time maintaining concentration. The jury is still out on this but it's a possibly failure mode worth considering even if it turns out to be a non issue ultimately.

      On the other hand I have had cruise control in my car for decades and when I engage it I actually seem to pay more attention which is kind of

  • by CanadianMacFan ( 1900244 ) on Thursday July 21, 2016 @07:39PM (#52558055)

    Do all the logs go to Tesla automatically or does the company only go fetch them after an accident (or when someone writes in with a report like this and implicitly gives their permission to access the information)? If everything gets sent to Tesla there are huge privacy implications. They know what stores you go to and how often, your habits, and many other things that can be determined by your driving habits. They could probably make a fair bit of money selling that information to advertisers.

    • by Clomer ( 644284 ) on Thursday July 21, 2016 @07:57PM (#52558149)
      I don't know if all of the logs do, but a substantial amount of them do. This is the "fleet learning" that Tesla talks about. Even when Autopilot isn't active, it's still watching, and comparing what it would do with what the human driver actually does as part of that fleet learning system.

      Note that this is opt-in. When you purchase a Tesla, one of the forms they ask you to sign gives them permission to collect this data. You can decline to sign it, which will result in much of the online functionality of the car being disabled, but it doesn't stop the purchase and you can still use the car as a car.
    • I don't know why people are freaking out about this. It's not like the car is KITT, and it watches me go into a strip club. It probably just has GPS coordinates. If I drive to a mall and park my car, Tesla isn't going to know which store I went into. It's just going to have the coordinates of the parking lot.
  • collision avoidance system. I saw ads on tv for this 2 maybe 3 years ago from Volvo I think, and then benz had one, mazda, gm, ford, ... Heck who doesn't have one? And then over a decade ago HUD system's incorporated IR imaging to detect people/animals and put it up in the HUD. This of course is before anyone connected brakes to the system.
  • >"The driver says him and his daughter were trying"

    Him was? Eeek... who wrote this???

  • From the sound of it. Autopilot was not engaged and it was auto braking that saved the day. They were not on a freeway or highway, they were on a street with intersections where pedestrians might cross. Not autopilot territory. Auto braking happens even when auto pilot is not enabled or engaged. Auto braking is available on several other car makes.
  • I find it funny they wait 2 month after a death to announce it (after large stock sales) but take 5 days to announce this. :)
  • by WaffleMonster ( 969671 ) on Friday July 22, 2016 @10:26AM (#52560861)

    If you turn off autopilot mode on or off it has no effect on AEB. AEB is always on by default and can only be temporarily disabled.

    They are advertised as logically separate features to the end user.

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