Quote:
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Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied
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This grabs my attention.
1) I wasn't there, but some amount of time passes before a jacknifing trailer makes it into your lane from the other side of the freeway. He could have panicked, he could've had a terrible reaction time, but I'm not convinced the driver was watching the road. Brightly lit sky is nicely included by the lawyers as some explanation, but the brakes were never applied in a fatal head on collision?
2) Who is familiar with the model S's sensor array? Am I wrong in thinking color and contrast doesn't matter at all here? The whole white trailer thing feels like a cop out. At some point before or after the high speed convertible conversion, the car should have done something if they wanted to call it autopilot.
Its fairly likely the driver wasn't present, and missed one of the most critical moments of his life because he was letting the car pay attention for him. If so, its very unfortunate and a little humbling. Regardless, the Tesla never knew what hit it, either because of a reflection and some sunlight, or because Tesla didn't anticipate obstacles above the hood. If I remember right, another driver tried to sue them because he left his car to self park (which he's totally liable for) and it repeatedly bumped into the back of a tractor trailer. Tesla is learning some harsh lessons, but just like every other manufacturer, they aren't going to let us know if they really got it wrong
My $0.02