Tesla X and Autopilot, still blind?

[botsapper]

Tesla's semi-autonomous Autopilot gets into another crash. A Tesla Model X in Montana veered suddenly, crashed driving through wooden posts/guardrails and went off road, it totaled the front passenger side tearing off the side and front wheel. Both Model X occupants are shaken but safe.
Tesla doesn’t recommend to use the Autosteer feature of the Autopilot on a road without a center divider and since the release of the 7.1 software update, it limits the speed of the system to the speed limit of the road plus an additional 5 mph. The driver may not have heeded this autopilot instruction. It seems the system is not 'aware' of older lane markers. The Autosteer feature may not enough data about older wood fencing/railing and/or it may have disengaged the system.
Elon Musk emphasizes that the Autopilot system is still in its beta stage and that Tesla needs to record 1 BILLION miles of Autopilot testing data before the system can be 'finalized'.
The PR of this 'testing' stage and company stock value are taking a serious beating.

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/thre...sterday.73308/

[wdb]

Looks like the fanboys are citing "driver error" again. I get where they're coming from, what I don't get is why Tesla would tout the feature as much as they have while simultaneously expecting drivers to babysit the thing like it was a 1 week old baby.

[redpoint5]

What I find more remarkable is that there aren't more serious accidents considering human tendency to get comfortable relying on automated systems.

I wonder if there is any obvious audio and visual indication when autopilot is disengaged? Perhaps autopilot should show a confidence % in it's ability to distinguish road boundaries, and inform the driver when the confidence drops below a certain threshold.

There have been several major airline crashes that were the result of a pilot accidentally bumping the steering column hard enough to disengage the autopilot, failing to notice the audible and visual notice that autopilot had disengaged, and then getting disoriented when taking manual control.

I wonder if autopilot on the Tesla is similar in that it disengages when the steering wheel is bumped too hard, or a brake pedal is accidentally tapped?

[botsapper]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

What I find more remarkable is that there aren't more serious accidents considering human tendency to get comfortable relying on automated systems.

I wonder if there is any obvious audio and visual indication when autopilot is disengaged? Perhaps autopilot should show a confidence % in it's ability to distinguish road boundaries, and inform the driver when the confidence drops below a certain threshold.

There have been several major airline crashes that were the result of a pilot accidentally bumping the steering column hard enough to disengage the autopilot, failing to notice the audible and visual notice that autopilot had disengaged, and then getting disoriented when taking manual control.

I wonder if autopilot on the Tesla is similar in that it disengages when the steering wheel is bumped too hard, or a brake pedal is accidentally tapped?

Too bad all of these scenarios have not been accounted for. Somehow have gradual slowdown, limp-home safety mode and proper warning/alarm signals, when the Autopilot is compromised and automatically disengaged - for any reason. Maybe Tesla has these systems but still, human error is always unaccounted for.

[wdb]

Originally Posted by botsapper

Maybe Tesla has these systems but still, human error is always unaccounted for.

I occasionally write software tools that humans use. In my experience you are absolutely correct, human error is always unaccounted for -- because it is impossible to anticipate just how imaginatively humans will err.