The Terrifying Truth About Why Tesla's Cars Keep Crashing
jelizondo writes:
A report in The Guardian titled 'The vehicle suddenly accelerated with our baby in it': the terrifying truth about why Tesla's cars keep crashing deals with their investigation into multiple Tesla crashes and the way the company handles the vast amounts of data it collects from every vehicle. A long and very interesting read.
At 3.18pm on 10 May 2018, Stefan Meier lost control of his Model S on the A2 highway near the Monte Ceneri tunnel. Travelling at about 100kmh (62mph), he ploughed through several warning markers and traffic signs before crashing into a slanted guardrail. "The collision with the guardrail launches the vehicle into the air, where it flips several times before landing," investigators would write later.
The car came to rest more than 70 metres away, on the opposite side of the road, leaving a trail of wreckage. According to witnesses, the Model S burst into flames while still airborne. Several passersby tried to open the doors and rescue the driver, but they couldn't unlock the car. When they heard explosions and saw flames through the windows, they retreated. Even the firefighters, who arrived 20 minutes later, could do nothing but watch the Tesla burn.
Rita Meier was one of many people who reached out to us after we began reporting on the Tesla Files - a cache of 23,000 leaked documents and 100 gigabytes of confidential data shared by an anonymous whistleblower. The first report we published looked at problems with Tesla's autopilot system, which allows the cars to temporarily drive on their own, taking over steering, braking and acceleration. Though touted by the company as "Full Self-Driving" (FSD), it is designed to assist, not replace, the driver, who should keep their eyes on the road and be ready to intervene at any time.
Autonomous driving is the core promise around which Elon Musk has built his company. [..] Is Tesla's autopilot really as advanced as he says? [..] The Tesla Files suggest otherwise. They contain more than 2,400 customer complaints about unintended acceleration and more than 1,500 braking issues - 139 involving emergency braking without cause, and 383 phantom braking events triggered by false collision warnings. More than 1,000 crashes are documented.
Braking for no reason caused just as much distress. "Our car just stopped on the highway. That was terrifying," a Tesla driver wrote. Another complained, "Frequent phantom braking on two-lane highways. Makes the autopilot almost unusable." Some report their car "jumped lanes unexpectedly", causing them to hit a concrete barrier, or veered into oncoming traffic.
[..] "Why are you convinced the Tesla was responsible for your husband's death?" we asked her. "Isn't it possible he was distracted - maybe looking at his phone?"
No one knows for sure. But Meier was well aware that Musk has previously claimed Tesla "releases critical crash data affecting public safety immediately and always will"; that he has bragged many times about how its superior handling of data sets the company apart from its competitors. In the case of her husband, why was she expected to believe there was no data?
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.