Uh oh, another Tesla autopilot crash fatality

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by freebeard

jamesqf -- 'Someone in government' probably used the word 'precursor'.

Still, anyone with access to e.g. a first-year college chemistry text can use just about anything as a 'precursor'. Consider for instance where the saltpetre (potassium nitrate) for gunpowder originally came from :-)

[gone-ot]

A: From "used" beer!

[freebeard]

Funny you should mention that; I just spent half the day at Amusing Planet:

These deposits were exploited by Bolivia, Chile and Peru since the 1840s. A struggle between these countries to control the nitrate-rich region eventually led to the War of the Pacific (1879–1883), also known as the Saltpeter War, in which Chile defeated Peru and Bolivia, and gained a significant amount of land from both countries. These acquisition enabled Chile to practically monopolize the production of natural nitrate. By the 1890s Chile was supplying almost 80% of the nitrogen used in the world.

http://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/05/the-abandoned-humberstone-and-santa.html

[RedDevil]

The NTSB released a preliminary report of the accident:
Highway Preliminary Report HWY16FH018

Tesla system performance data downloaded from the car indicated that vehicle speed just prior to impact was 74 mph. System performance data also revealed that the driver was operating the car using the advanced driver assistance features Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer lane keeping assistance. The car was also equipped with automatic emergency braking that is designed to automatically apply the brakes to reduce the severity of or assist in avoiding frontal collisions.

74 mph was over the 65 mph speed limit, but not that much.

The big question is whether the car been traveling at that speed and not lost speed until impact, or whether it had been going much faster and just failed to slow down enough.
Did the automatic emergency braking do what it was designed for?

The Tesla was equipped with multiple electronic systems capable of recording and transmitting vehicle performance data. NTSB investigators will continue to collect and analyze these data, and use it along with other information collected during the investigation in evaluating the crash events.

Jury still out... The report is to be expanded over time.

[freebeard]

Quoth The Register:

Tesla's splitting with sensor supplier
Mobileye's new best friends are BMW and Intel, and Elon says he's not worried

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/28/teslas_splitting_with_sensor_supplier/

Edit:

Matthew 5:29 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_5:29
Wikipedia
And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out,: and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for: thee that one of thy members should perish, and: not that thy whole body ...

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

A: From "used" beer!

And horse/cow manure. Interesting instructions from the government (presumably the CSA, given the date) on how to produce it: Joseph Leconte, 1823-1901. Instructions for the Manufacture of Saltpetre

[Xist]

Would people use auto drive if it obeyed the speed limit?

If someone was truly confident in their car's ability to drive itself, why not offer free insurance?

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by Xist

Would people use auto drive if it obeyed the speed limit?

If someone was truly confident in their car's ability to drive itself, why not offer free insurance?

Why would it obey the speed limit?
The driver is responsible, so if (s)he handed the controls to AutoPilot then why should they get a speeding ticket, they weren't driving it?

Suppose it did obey the speed limit, to the best of its knowledge, and still collects a ticket, who would be responsible for that?
The owner would like to have Musk pay it then...

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

Why would it obey the speed limit?

Take that a bit further: why should it stop at lights or signs, slow down for construction zones, stop for flaggers, drive the correct way on one-way streets or divided highways...?

The driver is responsible...

Arguable. If the driver hands over to autopilot doing the speed limit, and later autopilot decides to exceed the limit - say it enters a construction zone with a temporary limit - who's responsible?

And regardless, Tesla is the entity with deep pockets :-)

[RedDevil]

That's the point. If Autopilot is driving, it is the driver and should take all penalties involved.
We will see jails filled with Teslas