What is the sense of it then? If you can't depend on it, you need to keep alert constantly, with your hands on the wheel and foot ready to hit the brakes.
Which essentially defeats the purpose of TrafficAware Cruise Control.
[Edit: a user was kind to point that Tesla's Autopilot ISN'T an autopilot, and should NOT be relied upon to avoid accidents, requiring indeed full attention when driving]
It's almost like american football helmets.
My concern is that semi-autonomous vehicles become good enough that humans trust them to drive (that is, people consider the vehicle to be driving rather than providing an aide to driving such as automatic-shifting, and standard cruise-control); yet not so capable as to be a true autonomous vehicle. Do these features simply making driving safer across the board, or is there a point where the human stops taking responsibility and accidents increase?
Most of them may even know that they're supposed to be actively driving but, seriously, that's not how humans are wired. And tsk, tsking about how people shouldn't do that isn't going to change anything.
It will be "interesting" to see how this plays out because it's apparent that we're rapidly heading for a point where we'll have cars that are "pretty good" at highway autopilot that are in no way certified or approved for hands-off operation by drivers playing a video game.
Eventually people figure this stuff out, but as was discussed in other Tesla threads, there is a risk of entering an uncanny valley where it's actually more dangerous to have the assistive tech in an emergency, but safer in non-emergencies.
Not that I have an answer per se -- if I still have to be driving, inputting the obvious strategy doesn't help me much because I already know how to do that. Collision avoidance is pretty much the only thing I have anxiety about, so saying it's not supposed to be used for that means this is a very very expensive mid-range sedan (to consumers like me).
I was more responding to the second statement with, essentially: "Yes, it does default the 'autonomous driving' purpose of TACC".
Have they not mentioned, time and time again, that this is not an autonomous car? I have adaptive cruse control in my Mazda, automatic breaks, but they're not a replacement for paying attention to the road.
I'm of the opinion that Tesla probably needs to back down on their "autonomous" stuff-- their half-baked semi-autonomous stuff is getting enough bad press that it's going to kill true autonomous tech before it can even make it onto the road.
Even in aviation, 'autopilots' don't mean the pilot can leave the cockpit unmanned. Human pilots are needed at all times in case the autopilot disengages due to unexpected conditions.
The bottom line: TrafficAware is bad technology.
It's not intended to be an autopilot. Just a better cruise control
Telsa is just hyping up the same shit that all automakers can do right now.
Tesla brands this feature exactly as 'Autopilot'.
In that case your right foot thanks you for cruise control.