This mirrors my experience of driving in America. People do not adjust their speed or following distance to the conditions. They drive like they have some sort of right to a road free of obstructions and to drive at the speed limit or above, no matter the circumstances.

It's as if they expect the speed limit sign to adapt to the circumstances. They have the attitude, "Well if I need to slow down, why does the sign say I can go 70mph?"

It could be freezing rain with black ice or a fog with zero visibilty, and the overwhelming majority of American drivers would not change their driving one bit. I have seen this in every corner of the country and it is noticeably different from other countries.

There will always be unexpected obstructions in the roadbed of major highways. Stuff falls off. People lose control and roll and end up obstructing the lanes.

So while the Tesla and its self-driving mode were the proximate cause of the obstruction that led to the collision in this particular instance, they were absolutely unrelated to the actual cause of this entire category of accidents.

This attitude affects many other aspects of American life. Notably, gun violence. Exactly the same feeling of entitlement to go full speed ahead and damn the consequences dictates the occasional outcome of both highway driving and eating your lunch quietly in the school cafeteria.

There is little difference between an American in a pickup truck barreling down out of the Alleghenies at 80mph in fog and freezing rain and and American with a not-meaningfully-regulated gun barreling into a classroom and opening fire.

Both are the direct result of a sense of entitlement, and both regularly lead to mayhem and death.

You can't blame the Tesla for this.