Article 3RBMD Tesla Model S insurance almost $1,800 a year, Autopilot crashes again

Tesla Model S insurance almost $1,800 a year, Autopilot crashes again

by
Jonathan M. Gitlin
from Ars Technica - All content on (#3RBMD)
tesla-crash-800x450.jpg

Enlarge (credit: Aurich / Getty/ Tesla)

Does Tesla's Autopilot software have something against emergency services? That's a flippant question, but there's something underneath it. On Tuesday, a Model S electric vehicle-with Autopilot engaged, according to the driver-crashed into a police car in Laguna Beach, California. The police car was unoccupied at the time, but the Tesla driver sustained minor injuries. Last month, another Model S, also under Autopilot, slammed into the back of a stationary fire truck in South Jordan, Utah, resulting in a broken ankle for the Tesla driver. And in January, a third Autopiloted Model S plowed into the back of another fire engine, this time in Culver City, California.

It's probably best to avoid the conspiracy theories, though. It's not some bug with Autopilot's sensors and flashing lights-it's more like inattentive drivers who should be paying attention to the road. As we learned last year, automatic emergency braking is only trained to work in a relatively narrow set of circumstances, typically in the case of a moving vehicle that's directly ahead of the car. So a stationary emergency vehicle on the shoulder of the road, particularly one at an angle, might not get classified properly to trigger the function.

It has been a rough couple of weeks for Autopilot. The suite of advanced driver assistance systems, which includes adaptive cruise control and lane keeping, has also been blamed for destroying a Model 3 in Greece last week. In that case, the facts are even murkier-the car was on an unsupported road trip at the time, and Tesla had warned the owner before he set off.

Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

index?i=JZY9yxLs084:soB3FqCrbKQ:V_sGLiPB index?i=JZY9yxLs084:soB3FqCrbKQ:F7zBnMyn index?d=qj6IDK7rITs index?d=yIl2AUoC8zA
External Content
Source RSS or Atom Feed
Feed Location http://feeds.arstechnica.com/arstechnica/index
Feed Title Ars Technica - All content
Feed Link https://arstechnica.com/
Reply 0 comments