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Comment by 7e | Hacker News Reader

Autopilot is typically driven only in the newest cars by the richest people in ideal conditions. Heck, Autopilot disengages when it gets confused, which is often. And even with all of that, the fatality rate (at least the ones we know if) is only a third of the U.S. total population on a per-mile basis. Autopilot is likely more dangerous than the same set of drivers on the same routes in the same Teslas with Autopilot disabled.

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And yet, regulators across the world (US, Europe, Canada, China, Japan) allow its continued sale and use. Maybe they’re right and HN is wrong? How would you reconcile conservative regulators not taking action while participants here carry on about how unsafe it is? Inaction by one regulator might be explained, but all of them? Occam's razor leads us to a tolerance for the risk exposure, not a conspiracy.

It appears that it has to be proven dangerous, not foolproof, due to the driver still being responsible and assuming liability for its use, and that burden has not been met by critics.

Edit: I’m appealing to, broadly, transport safety professionals across various governments and continents (in aggregate) versus randos on an Internet forum. That seems like a pretty solid strategy from a risk perspective, as your risk math isn’t impacted by failures at a single regulatory body, nor by a layman without the professional body of domain knowledge that might be missing something critical.

I don't understand why you are appealing to authority while earlier pointing out the GM ignition switches that killed 124 people. If authority are a valid judge of safety, why didn't they act on the GM ignition switches earlier?

> And yet, regulators across the world … allow its continued sale and use.

Well, for one thing, regulators generally don’t “allow sales” but disallow things for various reasons.

By this logic the continued sale and use of tobacco is perfectly safe because the regulators allow it.

The regulators probably don't have the expertise or access to sufficiently evaluate autopilot safety. It's not in Musk's interest to be transparent about the dangers. This is the guy who keeps cutting sensors to increase profits over safety.

> And yet, regulators across the world (US, Europe, Canada, China, Japan) allow its continued sale and use.

I wouldn't be so sure, with more and more agencies signaling their intent to escalate...

> And yet, regulators across the world (US, Europe, Canada, China, Japan) allow its continued sale and use

The article is about Tesla FSD, not Autopilot (fancy word for cruise control and lane keeping).

I'm not aware of this feature being allowed for sale outside of North America, is this not the case?

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