Hacker News Reader

Comment by caymanjim | Hacker News Reader

What is the legitimate use of Tesla's self-driving function? You're not legally allowed to drive without being in control of your vehicle. Tesla says you're supposed to remain aware and in control. You aren't allowed to sit there eating a sandwich, or take a nap, or deal with the baby in the back seat. Yes, people drive distracted all the time, but encouraging them to do so isn't a good idea, and doesn't make it legal or remove personal liability. Any argument that people do these things anyway (well, not nap normally) is going to be offset by the fact that autopilot encourages and increases these behaviors.

I love the idea of self-driving vehicles, and when it's good enough, I'd trust it more than I'd trust most drivers (but of course not more than I'd trust myself, hypocrite that I am). We're not there yet, though, so I again ask what the legitimate use of it is.

View on HN

This is why I didn't buy a Tesla... It's half pregnant basically.

My 2019 Mazda 6 has adaptive cruise control and I think this gives you 80% of the features set for 1/3rd of the price.

FSD would allow you to only supervise which is definitely a lot LESS work.

I've gone on a 4 hour road trip (all on a major US highway) where I actually drove for maybe 30 mins total. The car drove flawlessly on the highway. For these situations, it is a perfect use case to help with the monotony of highway driving.

Yes I had to stay alert, but I could also relax a bit and look around every now and then, chuckle at a billboard, or pass some food back to my kid, which I can't if I'm driving.

The software engineer that died when his Tesla hit a barrier only had a 4 second window to react [1]. Hope you’re not looking away for too long.

[1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/ntsbs-tesla-fatal-crash-report...

Yeah like I tell my relatives and friends, "I'm a software guy which is exactly why I don't fully trust this thing. I know my people and know exactly how the sausage is made."

I only use autopilot on a sunny day, with less traffic (if going full speed, or in a traffic jam where you're going 10 mph) and only if the lines are very obvious.

Anything away from that happy path, I'm manually driving.

They should rebrand the feature as Copilot, not Autopilot.

See my comment above. Autopilot is a perfect name. Co-Pilots on an aircraft are a full-redundancy to the pilot. They are also there to do every single function in case a pilot is not able to.

Autopilot is an assistive feature that helps with monotony and boredom, just like this.

So the name will convey the right message to anyone with flight time? And this makes it perfect?

Look at what I say – It is the job of the media to properly explain this to the public, instead of stoking fears that the name is inappropriate and misleading. That's the media's mission.

Then the media should call it cruise control.

The media should actually explain the common misconception with the word Autopilot, and why people should understand what Autopilot actually means, not that Tesla is somehow being nefarious.

So why does the media have to take on this burden because Tesla intentionally chose a misleading name? Why is it not Tesla's job to properly explain its own technology? You can't be telling me Tesla was not fully aware what "autopilot" suggests to people.

Autopilot is the exactly accurate name for what the feature does. I answered this earlier:

Autopilot on an aircraft doesn't absolve the pilots from being at the wheel (yoke), nor does it automatically take off or land a plane. It is literally "I'll follow this heading and altitude until you tell me otherwise, and will make glide path and heading corrections as needed", which is EXACTLY what Tesla's Autopilot feature does. There are other warning systems for air collisions, etc.

Tesla has a name for their autonomous driving – it's called Full Self Driving. And it isn't out yet, to anyone. It's basically vaporware for the next few years.

Its for showing off to your poorer friends how much more 'woke' you are. Full stop.

Oh stop it. I encourage you to go for a test drive and try it out yourself. It works (in the conditions they claim it does), and it makes driving long distances or in stop-and-go traffic significantly easier. Dumb people will do dumb things, but if it were not for Tesla pushing the envelope, the car industry as a whole would be stuck in 2005.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com