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Comment by jollybean | Hacker News Reader

“They just get too used to it. That tends to be more of an issue. It’s not a lack of understanding of what Autopilot can do. It’s [drivers] thinking they know more about Autopilot than they do.”

Hmm, that seems like a rather stark contradiction.

Elon I think has some character flaws and when people are dying it's not the time to be defensive. I'm one of the least naturally empathetic people I know and yet I wouldn't be talking about anything other than condolences.

Finally he can't continue to defend the term 'autopilot' - in Public Communications, you're talking the masses, the lowest common denominator, and the 'laziest mode' of even high functioning people - you gotta use words that will shape outcomes. 'Autopilot' is just a bad choice - he needs to change it.

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I agree. People here will cite the aviation term not refering to autonomous flying, but if you ask a regular person in the street, they think that Tesla's are self-driving. This is a dangerous belief that is held by a lot of people and needs to change. However, Tesla knows this adds an intriguing cachet to the brand, so they seem reluctant to downplay it.

It doesn't matter what a "regular person in the street" thinks, from a safety standpoint. What matters is what Tesla owners think (i.e. the people driving the cars). Are they fooled by the term? Search around on TMC, /r/teslamotors, or any other owners group, and you'll find it's pretty universally understood.

Additionally, the car reminds you of its limitations every time you use it. And it disables if it doesn't detect torque on the steering wheel, or weight in your seat, or the seatbelt clipped in. I understand how someone could be mislead by marketing early in the buying process. But by the time you get to operating the vehicle, it is borderline impossible to use Autopilot and still believe it requires no human attention.

Not sure that these guys are in the reddit demographic... but regardless, Tesla intends their cars to be a mass-market product. Peer pressure is a thing, and many of the people who buy these cars are showing them off to their friends who are eager to see the "autopilot" in action. When people are given conflicting information, they'll believe the story they want to believe. ("that fine print is just stuff the lawyers put in there") While drivers have the ultimate responsibility for sure, the situation this perception has created is foreseeable.

https://abc7ny.com/amp/tesla-crash-houston-fatal-car-autopil...

> two men who were found dead inside the car had dropped off their wives at a nearby home and told them they were going to take the 2019 Tesla S class for a test ride.

> The man, ages 59 and 69, had been talking about the features on the car before they left.

Disables if it doesn't detect torque on the steering wheel

Are you sure?

What if the driver had a heart attack? Wouldn't the responsible thing for the car to do would be to slow down, steer off the road and park? And then notify the authorities?

idk about notification but otherwise thats what it does, it slows down and stops :D

The big difference between car drivers w/ "autopilot" and airline pilots with autopilot is that the airline pilots have massively increased training requirements, regular re-certification, and physical fitness requirements.

Even if plane vs automobile autopilots are equivalent in functionality, the difference in operator training is separated by multiple orders of magnitude. Not to mention the frequent presence of a second pilot in commercial airlines and a dedicated ATF crew on the ground to monitor their situation.

Do you feel the same way about Ford's "Copilot 360"? Surely everyone agrees that a "copilot" is more capable than an "autopilot"...

Only one car manufacturer's CEO and fanboys speak about how technologically advanced it is and how driverless cars have been here since 2016.

i mean the word copilot does imply that there is another pilot

Exactly, copilot implies to me that I can get up and go use the restroom while the "copilot" is driving for me.

> 'Autopilot' is just a bad choice

It depends on what your goals are. It is a widely known term, associated with Tesla and seen favorably. Sure, it is supremely misleading but in this case that seems like a feature.

If Tesla's goal was safety they wouldn't have shipped this feature in the first place. Instead they are aiming for luxury.

He's defensive because the news media is talking about a product that can't be operated in the way the news media is describing. It's not physically possible. The car can't be operated with no one in the driver's seat. Autopilot shuts off automatically.

And yet there are plenty of videos like this... https://youtu.be/VS5zQKXHdpM?t=93

My guess would be Tesla makes the driver detection relatively simple to defeat compared to what they could enforce if they wanted.

Yeah in that case they had to put a weight on the seat, keep the seat buckled, and also keep applying force to the wheel. At some point you just have to give up as the threat model becomes too big.

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