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Comment by omarforgotpwd | Hacker News Reader

Tesla is pretty clear with users that auto pilot is little more than an advanced cruise control feature and you can't rely on it. The whole Auto pilot name is just marketing. It is really no different than a Mercedes with the same features getting in a crash. As these systems are widely deployed people will continue to die. What's important is that the deaths per million miles is lower than with auto pilot off, and that's already true today's.

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I worked on the Mercedes system and have driven it for thousands of miles. How the systems approach enforcement is entirely different. If you remove your hands from the wheel for more than a second or two, the system turns off. I can watch dozens of videos of people with their hands off the wheel of their Tesla while speaking into a camera on YouTube. I consider that very different.

Perhaps but at some point software has to let people take their hands off the wheel. It's very hard to say when the software is "good enough" to let people do that but it's a leap we need to make to get to where we're going.

> at some point software has to let people take their hands off the wheel

At that point, drivers shouldn't be expected to put their hands back on the wheel. They should be in the backseat, which is Google's plan.

There isn't time to put your hands back on the wheel in the event of a car accident. Planes get minutes to react to errors. Cars have seconds. Car drivers are more akin to train conductors who, these days, have complex deadman's switches that guarantee the conductor is still focused on driving the train.

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