this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
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[–] samus7070@programming.dev 210 points 10 months ago (6 children)

The real crime is marketing the driver assist capability under the name autopilot when it is anything but that.

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 150 points 10 months ago

Oh no, it's even worse than that.

It's the CEO and other staff repeatedly speaking of the system as if it's basically fully capable and it's only for legal reasons why a driver is even required. Even saying that the car could drive from one side of the US to the other without driver interaction (only to not actually do that, of course).

It's the company never correcting people when they call it a self driving system.

It's the company saying they're ready for autonomous taxis and saying owner's cars will make money for them while they aren't driving it.

It's calling their software subscription Full Self Driving

It's honestly staggering to me that they're able to get away with this shit.

[–] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 35 points 10 months ago

I think the real crime is vehicular manslaughter, especially the SECOND one.

[–] Neato@kbin.social 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Tesla should be playing wrongful death suits every time autopilot kills someone. Their excuses don't excuse the blatant marketing that leads people to believe it's a self driving car.

[–] 800XL@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

But you see that wasn't the vehicle's fault. It's been programmed perfectly. What happened was the fault of the pedestrians and driver for not properly predicting what the car would do.

maybe /s maybe not.

[–] Goferking0@ttrpg.network 9 points 10 months ago

no you see the issue is that the auto pilot stopped right before the accident so obviously it was entirely drivers fault, please don't check how much time was between it stopping and the accident

[–] raptir@lemdro.id 22 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Do we need to go through what autopilot in a plane or boat actually does again?

[–] kool_newt@lemm.ee 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It doesn't matter, Tesla cars are marketed to the public which isn't expected to know these things. To probably 90% of people "autopilot" means "drive automatically".

[–] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one -3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

To probably 90% of people "autopilot" means "drive automatically".

Based on what?

[–] kool_newt@lemm.ee 5 points 10 months ago

Based on my usage and understanding of the word being a lay person.

I'm an engineer myself, sometimes there are words that you have to be cognizant of the differences in meaning to other engineers vs lay people or even engineers in other fields. Some words are heavily overloaded, and "autopilot" is kinda one of them (others being "domain", "node", "artificial intelligence", etc.).

[–] poopkins@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Tesla markets this feature as "Full Self-Driving Capability." Maybe I'm poorly informed, but to me that means that the car is fully capable of driving itself without human interaction.

[–] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

FSD is an entirely separate thing. Autopilot is just an LKAS system, or adaptive cruise control.

[–] poopkins@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Aha, today I learned that Autopilot is just lane-keeping and adaptive cruise control. I feel that it must be a common misunderstanding to confuse the terms "Autopilot" and "Fully Self-Driving" in the vernacular.

Many other manufacturers refer to lane-keeping systems as "driver assistance," and I believe Tesla is intentionally misleading consumers with the impression that their system is more capable and allows the driver to pay less attention.

[–] RushingSquirrel@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Until you drive it. You know the capabilities, you know when you can and cannot activate it, you know how often it tells you to look at the road and if you don't prove you've got your hands on the wheel, it disables itself for the drive (you need to park to reactivate it). No Tesla driver thinks autopilot is more than a lane and distance keeping assistance.

Autopilot is a marketing name, that's it.

[–] dexa_scantron@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If we do, then they shouldn't have picked a name that most people think does something it doesn't.

[–] RushingSquirrel@lemm.ee 0 points 10 months ago

When you drive a Tesla, it's pretty clear what autopilot is. The name is a marketing term, you can't engage it everywhere and anytime, you've got to keep your hands on the wheel or it disables itself, won't stop at stop signs and red lights, won't do line changes, etc.

[–] fiah@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

do we need to go through the differences in training, aptitude and intelligence between pilots, captains and your neighbor Greg again? Marketing it as "autopilot" to anyone who can sign a car loan is reckless and has killed people and will continue to kill people until they stop

[–] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one -2 points 10 months ago

Yep, just like "cruise control" made tons of people drive their car into the ocean thinking they could sail it to popular island destinations.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

Depends entirely on the type of autopilot.

[–] Fox@pawb.social 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

It's a common misunderstanding that an autopilot system in an airplane does everything or even a lot of things. The most basic ones keep the wings level and nothing else. Of course Tesla is probably counting on that misconception to sell this feature, but actual pilots using any kind of autopilot are still on the hook to pay attention 100% of the time.

[–] menemen@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

In an airplane that is fine as pilots are specifically trained on the planes they fly (at least in theory). No one gets a special course in how to drive a specific (non industrial) car...