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Crossroads That Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company, and
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Over at YouTube Music Search for Elon Musk podcast, a recent
federal investigation revealed that Tesla's Autopilot and full
self driving features have been linked to numerous crashes,
including hundreds of injuries and dozens of fatalities.
This investigation, which was spurred by a tragic incident
involving a North Carolina student and a Tesla Model Y,
shows that there are serious concerns about the safety and
effectiveness of these technologies.
In March of 2023, a high speed collision occurred when a Tesla
Model 3 operating on Autopilot struck a 17 year old student as
he exited a school bus. This incident prompted the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or the NHTSA, to
scrutinize similar accidents involving Tesla's automated
driving services. Now the NHTS, as extensive
review, covered 956 incidents dating from January 2018 through
August of 2023. They discovered a troubling
pattern where Tesla's technology failed to ensure drivers
remained engaged, resulting in 29 deaths and numerous injuries
across various scenarios. The findings indicate the
drivers often disengage from the driving process while using
Autopilot or full self driving. Despite Tesla's guidance on
maintaining hands on the wheel and eyes on the road, many
drivers became complacent, leading to catastrophic outcomes
now, particularly concerning where the crashes involving
stationary emergency vehicles. These incidents typically
occurred at night and involved Autopilot ignoring critical
scene control measures like warning lights and cones,
highlighting a grave oversight in Tesla system design.
Now the NHTSA criticized Tesla for not designing a system to
keep drivers adequately engaged. This flaw appears to have
allowed drivers to over rely on Autopilot, thus not reacting
quickly enough to avoid collisions as evidenced in 59
detailed crash investigations. Now analysis of these incidents
show that often drivers had significant warning times up to
10 seconds before impact. They were not utilized
effectively to prevent crashes, revealing a critical safety gap
in Tesla's automation technology.
And the agency also noted that Tesla's approach to automation
different significantly from other manufacturers.
While others promote driver assistance as an aid, Tesla's
branding suggest higher level of autonomy, which may mislead
users about the capabilities and safe use of Autopilot and full
self driving. Now, furthermore, the NHTSA has
raised concerns about Tesla's failure to collect comprehensive
telemetry data, suggesting that the true scale of issues related
to Autopilot and full self driving could also be under
reported. And in response to these
findings, Tesla implemented A voluntary recall issuing a
software update intended to enhance driver monitoring and
engagement alerts. However, ongoing reports of
crashes have led to skepticism about the effectiveness of these
updates and HTS as ongoing investigations and the recent
findings under score the agency's concerns about the
safety of Tesla's automated driving features.
This scrutiny comes amidst Tesla's ambitious plans to
advance towards full autonomous vehicles, which has been
something that they've been promising for a very long time
and haven't delivered on. And despite the controversies,
Tesla CEO Elon Musk continues to assert the safety and
superiority of Tesla's technology over traditional
driving, claiming that autonomy could significantly reduce
traffic accidents. Musk's confidence in Tesla's
autonomous future was reiterated during a recent earnings call.
Ray stated that achieving full autonomy would be pivotal for
the company's success. He encouraged investors to trust
in Tesla's capability to solve autonomy, emphasizing the
potential to transform all transportation.
However, critics and safety experts argue that Tesla's
promotional strategies and public statements often
overstate the capabilities of the driving systems.
This practice, known as Auto No Washing, has been highlighted as
potentially misleading consumers about the true functionality and
safety of Autopilot and Full Self driving.
Recent legislative attention from Senator Edward J Markey and
Richard Blumenthal has further pressured regulatory bodies to
enforce stricter controls on where and how Tesla's Autopilot
feature should be used any to mitigate further risks to public
safety. And the ongoing debate about
Tesla's technology and its regulatory scrutiny show that
there's more challenges in the automotive industry's shift
towards autonomous driving. It's kind of a long way away if
you think about it. It has been a development for
around 10 plus years. Autonomy in vehicles at scale is
a thing that hasn't happened yet, and Tesla's at the
forefront of it, but they're still pretty far away, and as
companies like Tesla push the boundaries of this tech, the
safety during these innovations remains critical.
The NHTSA is comprehensive review and its actions indicate
A cautious approach towards autonomous driving technology.
Now. Ensuring that these systems do
not compromise safety while advancing innovation is
essential for their acceptance and success in the United States
and all over the world. Now, while Tesla's Autopilot and
full selfdriving technologies represent significant
advancements in auto tech, the current implementation and
oversight raise important safety concerns.
It's crucial for Tesla to address these issues as they
continue to develop and promote autonomy in all of their
vehicles. Hey, thank you so much for
listening today. I really do appreciate your
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