The only issue I have with Tesla's Autopilot is the naming. It gives a false impression. It is more like driver assist rather than autopilot.
IIHS did a survey of 2000 people and a driver assistance system named "Autopilot" received the most responses that overestimated the system's capabilities. For example, "Nearly half — 48% — thought it would be safe to take hands off the steering wheel when using the system." In general, about 50% more people overestimated the capabilities of Autopilot compared to the names used by industry leaders (ex. SuperCruise, ProPilot Assist). Other things users were more likely to think they could do with "AutoPilot" included texting and watching a video.
See https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/new-studies-highlight-drive...
Are you serious?? Literally everyone.
Definitions are what things mean. People incorrectly interpreting a word is their own fault and are in need of education.
Also, that's a terrible study to highlight. It is totally safe to take your hands off the steering wheel as long as you are ready to react.
Do you honestly think Tesla called it "auto pilot" with your pedantic, "technically correct" definition in mind? Or do you think they intentionally called it "auto pilot" to invoke a sense of "hey, this thing can drive itself!". I mean, in some of their marketing they even have a whimsical blurb about how "the driver is only present to make the lawyers happy".
Let's be honest here. Product naming is marketing designed to invoke certain emotions. Calling it "auto pilot" instead of "driver assist" or whatever most other manufacturers call it was very intentionally done.
Exactly. You can read one piece of copy about Summon, that says "Have your finger on this button. Maintain visual contact and pay attention with vehicle at all times", and on the same page. "Have your car come to you while you are distracted by a fussing child".
It's all very nudge nudge wink wink.
Words mean what people think they mean. Definitions are what the author of the dictionary thinks people think they mean.
Unless you're going to spend the time and money and effort educating people on what a word might have once meant and what you would like it to mean again, you're kind of stuck with it. Tesla has absolutely chosen AutoPilot as their name because they know some people will think it has more capability than it does because some people don't know most plane's autopilot is fairly dumb.
You misused "Literally".
This fundamental mis-branding is why various regulators across the globe are cracking down on Tesla marketing.
autopilot in aviation requires the pilot to be attentive, and maintain situational awareness.
it’s not autonomous flying.
When autopilot gives up in a plane, the PIC will respond in seconds. But anything dangerous is typically minutes or at least tens of seconds away from happening at that moment, if at all.
When tesla 'autopilot' gives up in a car, the driver may have less than a second before a collision. Or worse, as we've seen with the 'tesla tries to drive into a barrier' cases, the 'autopilot' might not give up at all and just straight up try to murder you with the only safety remaining being your own attention to the situation.
The fundamental problem with <99.99% reliable autonomous driving is that the driver's attention is guaranteed to stray due to lack of stimulation, and their reaction time will be at ~3s whereas the impeding crash might be only 0.3s away. In that regard, it's much better to just be manually driving and have your attention on the road.
And the consumer flip side of this is, what the fuck is the point of a self driving car if it requires you to fully pay attention and be ready to intervene at any given moment on such short notice? Waymo observed that their test drivers get bored and tired really quickly when operating like that, due to the simultaneous lack of stimulation but need to be able to take over on short notice. The answer is that SAE level 2 autonomy shouldn't be labelled as self driving because it isn't.
Tesla 'autopilot' is an over-marketed lane-keeping cruise control system which has virtually no chance of ever becoming SAE level 3. Tesla marketing has mislead a significant percentage of owners that they're in fact buying a level 3 system, which is why various regulators across the world are cracking down on Tesla now.
Disclosure: I own Tesla stock.
That's a very strong claim. Can you provide any evidence?
I own neither Tesla stock or car.
This is uncommon in planes.
TCAS, for example: https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/64847/how-much-...
> Traffic advisories are provided 35-48 seconds out and a Resolution will be provided 20-30 seconds out.
It's exceedingly rare you have 20-30 seconds warning of an impending car crash.
Fewer things to hit in the sky but you can never be complacent.
Imagine playing an iPhone game while PIC and accidentally flying into the clouds? The CFIT stats are terrifying.
There is almost never a situation where a plane on autopilot can face catastrophe in <20 seconds.
Midair collisions are why we have ADS-B (even in my dad's little four-seater prop plane) and TCAS. The are also exceedingly uncommon.
People driving into a ditch, pedestrian, barrier, or oncoming traffic is commonplace.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-lion-air-cras...
> Lemme described "a deadly game of tag" in which the plane pointed down, the pilots countered by manually aiming the nose higher, only for the sequence to repeat about five seconds later. That happened 26 times during the 11-minute flight...
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/what-passengers-expe...
8:39:55 a.m.: In a clear sign that something is amiss, the autopilot turns itself off.
8:40:00 a.m.: The MCAS activates.
8:43:04 a.m.: For minutes now, the captain has been using brute physical force to pull the control yoke back in order to keep the plane’s nose from sinking.
8:43:20 a.m.: The demon awakened by the restoration of electric trim reappears. MCAS kicks back in, pushing nose steeply down.
8:43:45 a.m.: Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 impacts a farm field at nearly 700 miles per hour
That's more than three minutes during which properly disabling MCAS would've been successful and saved the aircraft.
The nature of the MCAS issue is it kept firing every 5 seconds, making things progressively harder to counteract. It takes a while to get to the “can’t counteract” point.
https://www.quora.com/Why-did-the-pilots-on-the-Lion-Air-and...
To return back to the original point for a moment:
40 seconds is a shitload more time to react than the 1-2 seconds you've got when oncoming car traffic veers into your lane unexpectedly. Things in cars happen faster than in planes. A couple seconds of inattention in a plane won't kill you in the same way they will in a car.
People think autopilots do a lot more than they actually do, which is part of the problem with Tesla's naming. They probably should've called it "assisted cruise" or "driver assist" or something, but that's less sexy on the marketing side.
It doesn't help that their marketing pages for Autopilot have done a clever job of blurring the line between what's currently implemented and what's aspirational. https://www.tesla.com/autopilot has a giant header titled "Full Self-Driving Capability". You have to read more closely to see the big caveats.
The only reason it isn't automated is because there's no monetary gain in doing so, the people you are paying is still sitting around for the same amount of time.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/autopilo...
"a device that keeps aircraft, spacecraft, and ships moving in a particular direction without human involvement"
Either way, I think the wording causes people to trust it too much.
I mean absolutely no disrespect to you and I understand your feelings are probably coming straight out your heart. However I would like to point out that when you say that the world does not meet your expectation and that somehow is a problem with the world and not your own self is very arrogant.