[HN Gopher] Federal investigators blast Tesla, call for stricter...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Federal investigators blast Tesla, call for stricter safety
       standards
        
       Author : AndrewDucker
       Score  : 71 points
       Date   : 2021-03-13 16:20 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
        
       | hartator wrote:
       | Can't help to notice the sudden hate of the administration for
       | anything Elon Musk related since the change of administration.
        
         | throwawaysea wrote:
         | Something strange I have noticed in the last couple years on
         | leftist social media is the contempt harbored by some for Musk.
         | I can't quite place it but it feels like a mix of envy and a
         | hatred of success, in part because he seems like proof that
         | capitalism works. I think the emphasis on his character flaws -
         | which we all have - is disproportionate and frankly totally
         | irrelevant considering the scale of his achievements. But he is
         | a centrist not a progressive, he solves problems within the
         | framework of capitalism, and he has an aggressive disregard for
         | the norms of society. That makes him a target for those who are
         | ideologically committed, dislike market driven economies, and
         | favor big government/centralized restrictions. Those sentiments
         | have increasingly bled into the Democratic Party as it has
         | lurched leftward.
         | 
         | I'm not sure if this is it, but I wouldn't be surprised to see
         | this administration try to reign him in. And when it happens, I
         | wonder how news media and society will perceive it. Will they
         | compare it to the relationship between China and Jack Ma? Or
         | will they view these actions as virtuous, moral, and therefore
         | justified?
        
           | BluSyn wrote:
           | If you pay attention it's been created by a carefully
           | constructed narrative by certain media outlets. The switch to
           | anti-tech and anti-billionaire biases was surprisingly swift,
           | and few seemed to even notice. Add to that the complete
           | removal of nuance from news reports, and any platforms (eg,
           | Clubhouse / Podcasts) that attempt to add in nuance are
           | either ignored/treated as fringe, or out-right demonized.
        
           | heavyset_go wrote:
           | You don't need a media conspiracy to tarnish Elon Musk's
           | reputation, because Musk is the same man who used his
           | platform to reach millions of people and call a literal hero
           | who helped save children's lives a pedophile several
           | times[1].
           | 
           | [1] https://www.the-sun.com/news/126445/who-is-vernon-
           | unsworth-t...
        
           | worik wrote:
           | "mix of envy and a hatred of success"
           | 
           | No. It is distrust of such a erratic self loving obsessive
           | fool.
           | 
           | Yes he is very smart, and is capable of assembling teams of
           | fantastic engineers. But he cannot shut up. If it is tweeting
           | jokes about taking Tesla private, slandering peopel who are
           | doing the dangerous work and do not want his foolish
           | interference (pedo guy), advocating (Dog help us!) Bitcoin.
           | The lawsuits against whistle blowers. And here: his tolerance
           | of fatal failures in his technology in favour of marketing
           | and cash flow.
           | 
           | "aggressive disregard for the norms of society": If it were
           | thought through and considered it would not be such a
           | problem. If he were less intelligent, less driven, it would
           | be less of a problem.
           | 
           | He is a fool. But a fool with a big stick. And that is a very
           | dangerous thing
        
       | new_realist wrote:
       | You can have self-driving progress without lax safety practices;
       | look at Waymo, which is way ahead of Tesla. Tesla chooses not to
       | behave ethically for marketing and cash flow reasons.
        
       | throwawaysea wrote:
       | This feels like the same flawed catastrophizing logic I see with
       | anti-car movements like Vision Zero or discussions about
       | coronavirus lockdowns - emphasis on negative outcomes and fear
       | mongering without consideration of the positives or benefits that
       | we are trading off against. Driving is a great convenience that
       | saves us time by getting us directly from point A to point B
       | quickly. It has a low rate of serious injuries and fatalities.
       | The unregulated driver assistance tech from Tesla may have flaws
       | and drawbacks that result in some rate of injuries and
       | fatalities, but overall it reduces the rate of negative outcomes
       | tremendously. Isn't that proof enough that it's a net positive?
       | Why is regulation here a good thing when it may increase costs
       | and inhibit the fast path to innovation we get otherwise?
       | 
       | To me this sounds like an unproven and spurious claim that
       | regulation will offer more benefit relative to letting a company
       | like Tesla innovate freely. I don't buy it, and it feels like
       | they're trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist.
        
         | AndrewDucker wrote:
         | "but overall it reduces the rate of negative outcomes
         | tremendously"
         | 
         | Do you have a citation for that?
        
           | bhupy wrote:
           | I'm not the GP, but I think they're referring to:
           | https://cleantechnica.com/2020/08/01/tesla-autopilot-
           | acciden...
        
             | AndrewDucker wrote:
             | Thank you, that's very informative!
        
       | nabla9 wrote:
       | Tesla usually goes for most technically advanced solution.
       | 
       | But when it comes to driver alertness monitoring they pick the
       | easiest to fool solution. I suspect it's intentional. Eye
       | tracking would prevent their users from misusing autopilot. It
       | would kill the hype.
        
         | 11thEarlOfMar wrote:
         | The latest FSD Beta monitors driver alertness with cabin
         | camera. Tesla has rejected beta testers who did not pay enough
         | attention:
         | 
         | https://twitter.com/TSLAgang/status/1370524705950724097
        
         | mcot2 wrote:
         | The latest FSD beta is now confirmed to be using the internal
         | camera to monitor for alertness and Elon has just announced via
         | twitter that they kicked people out of the Beta for misuse.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | arminiusreturns wrote:
       | I like Tesla, but... good. Having worked in the autonomous
       | industry and seeing "how the sausage is really made" is scary as
       | fuck.
       | 
       | One thing to keep in mind, is thats its not just the feds, as you
       | will notice testing is done in certain states that have less
       | regulation (read: governors hands got greased)
       | 
       | Ill leave you with one insight into the sausage factory to
       | contemplate. I told a c-level we needed a code review, and he
       | balked, saying something to the effect of "Do you know how much
       | that costs, how long it takes, and how hard it is?! No" This
       | company has vehicles on public roads already!...
        
         | andrekandre wrote:
         | "Do you know how much that costs, how long it takes, and how
         | hard it is?! No" This company has vehicles on public roads
         | already!...
         | 
         | this is why imo "just let the market figure it out" is not
         | always the answer to every problem...
        
         | xnx wrote:
         | From what I've read there's Waymo and then there's everybody
         | else.
        
       | 11thEarlOfMar wrote:
       | > Under then-President Donald Trump, NHTSA largely let automakers
       | do what they liked when it came to advanced driver-assistance
       | systems (ADAS) and prototype driverless vehicles.
       | 
       | I have questions. Were the NHTSA's policies regarding ADAS
       | different under Obama than Trump? Are they different under Biden
       | than Trump? If so, what changed? If not, why mention it?
        
         | Robotbeat wrote:
         | Not significantly from what I can tell.
        
         | NoSorryCannot wrote:
         | Written policies don't change that quickly. Policing, aka the
         | execution of those policies, can be swayed by firings,
         | appointments, executive order, and political pressure. Trump
         | used these avenues more than most.
        
       | mcot2 wrote:
       | I don't think the NTSB is properly weighing the safety benefits
       | of these systems. They seem to be myopically focused on a few
       | crashes/incidents. Cars are not planes. For better or worse we as
       | the public have a lot more tolerance for car crashes than plane
       | crashes.
       | 
       | I don't think there is enough evidence that the current ADAS
       | systems are better or worse than human drivers at this point. I'd
       | say the best way to improve the situation is not to have heavy
       | handed regulation at this stage and let the technology play out.
        
         | Robotbeat wrote:
         | Yeah, the problem is the "high profile crashes" aspect.
         | 
         | It's not that crashes with only humans behind the wheel are
         | uncommon. They're common as dirt! But they're not "high
         | profile." So arguably NTSB's perspective (since they only do
         | "high profile" crashes) is heavily skewed toward dramatic
         | anecdotes compared to NHTSA who have to take into account all
         | the crashes, high profile or not.
         | 
         | Data vs anecdote.
        
           | snowwrestler wrote:
           | The staff of the NTSB is well aware of the broader context of
           | automotive safety.
        
           | omgwtfbyobbq wrote:
           | I think NTSB is using data in the aggregate. What they seem
           | to be focusing on is manufacturers, specifically Tesla,
           | broadly allowing use of these systems in circumstances where
           | it's possibly dangerous and also allowing advanced features,
           | which can be more dangerous, for smaller groups. Their POV is
           | that if manufacturers were more restrictive about where the
           | comfort features could be used, there would be fewer deaths.
           | I've never read about them criticizing the active safety
           | components to these systems.
        
         | RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
         | But here is the thing. If you compare Tesla's with some of the
         | other higher end cars, they have a higher mortality.
         | 
         | https://medium.com/@MidwesternHedgi/teslas-driver-fatality-r...
        
           | Robotbeat wrote:
           | Tesla isn't selling exclusively in the luxury market. If you
           | want a high performance or road-trip capable electric car,
           | you basically have just one option.
           | 
           | So you should compare against overall cars, not just "high
           | end" luxury cars. Being electric has made them more
           | expensive, but they're not really true luxury cars for the
           | most part and are not driven by the same people or under the
           | same conditions or under the same driving style as luxury
           | cars.
        
             | Hypocritelefty wrote:
             | 10k for a fraud is not high end? Where does fraud Karen
             | finds shills like you?
        
             | worik wrote:
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_electric_cars_current
             | l...
             | 
             | Tesla is right up there but there are many snapping at its
             | heels, especially from China.
             | 
             | I am hoping my next car will be a Chinese electric sports
             | car. But, unlike a Tesla, one I own.
        
         | hahahahe wrote:
         | That's an interesting take. So you think we shouldn't have
         | regulations on this new unproven technology where the
         | government poured billions upon billions to help develop. And
         | that's fine. Just don't take gov't money then.
        
           | prophesi wrote:
           | Not that there shouldn't be any regulations, but that the
           | direction regulations are going in are pretty heavy-handed
           | when you consider how accepting as a society we are to have
           | thousands of car accidents every single day, and thousands of
           | car-related deaths every year (in the USA at least). Self-
           | driving cars are already much safer than human-driven cars.
        
             | camjohnson26 wrote:
             | "Self-driving cars are already much safer than human-driven
             | cars."
             | 
             | Citation sorely needed. The few self driving cars currently
             | on the road either require active human supervision or only
             | operate in the absolute best circumstances so can't be
             | compared to human drivers who operate in all conditions and
             | all types of vehicles.
        
             | hahahahe wrote:
             | No they're not safer than human-driven cars. Not enough
             | data to claim that. And how can you even collect that data
             | when we don't even have fully automated cars in the wild?
        
               | prophesi wrote:
               | There's plenty of data on it. Safety is _the_ number one
               | thing people are paying attention to in self-driving
               | cars.
        
             | snowwrestler wrote:
             | Society does not accept any level of car accidents. That's
             | why there are safety regulations, that's why there are
             | safety investigators, that's why there is a ton of safety-
             | related R&D and testing, heck that's why there are
             | stoplights and traffic laws and rules about using your
             | mobile phone.
             | 
             | Individually, no one ever wants to get into a car accident.
             | Collectively, the desired number of accidents each year is
             | zero. We're not there yet because it's hard to do, not
             | because of acceptance.
             | 
             | So any new mechanism for accidents is going to come in for
             | very heavy scrutiny. And by mechanism I don't mean solely
             | technology, but also human factors, which are huge issues
             | when it comes to the current state of "self driving" cars.
        
               | matz1 wrote:
               | Society does accept some level of car accident otherwise
               | there would be no car on the road at all.
               | 
               | Safety regulations is good but too much safety regulation
               | is bad.
        
           | Hypocritelefty wrote:
           | No point debating anything here as this place is full of
           | Tesla shills
        
           | Isinlor wrote:
           | Companies should be required to monitor distances driven and
           | report crashes when L2+ systems are active.
           | 
           | If it's proven that a system performs significantly worse
           | than a human then regulate it further.
        
         | nojito wrote:
         | There isn't even evidence that backup cameras reduce accidents.
        
         | maxerickson wrote:
         | If the system requires driver attention for the best safety
         | outcomes, it seems a bit over the top to describe regulation
         | requiring functional driver attention monitoring 'heavy
         | handed'.
         | 
         | Putting it another way, is there evidence that some ADAS are
         | better than others? Because that's another way to choose
         | regulations.
        
       | mhb wrote:
       | As usual, and as exemplified by virtually every decision in the
       | Covid handling debacle, no mention of cost/benefit tradeoffs.
       | 
       | What number of deaths will be due to slower progress due to
       | needing to comply with whatever the NTSB believes will save
       | lives?
        
         | AlotOfReading wrote:
         | Why is tesla the only company that has to exhibit this behavior
         | to progress? GM for instance has two different programs for
         | "self driving", their supercruise ADAS and cruise, the Waymo
         | competitor. Are they farther away from superhuman self driving
         | because they've never promised "FSD" in their ADAS?
        
         | epistasis wrote:
         | Is there evidence that we can expect a benefit? Could we put a
         | probability distribution over that?
         | 
         | In other life and death fields, like medicine, the promise of
         | saving lives is made all the time, but even for great benefit
         | we do not cut corners to prove benefit more quickly.
         | 
         | Given the way that automobiles have little regard for life, I
         | would rather that we take our queue from fields like medicine
         | that have bothered to deal with the ethics and the cost benefit
         | analysis.
         | 
         | Similarly, your claims about COVID reactions not weighing the
         | cost benefit analysis are unfounded, at least that I have seen.
         | I have seen many self-motivated parties making ridiculous,
         | absurd, and harmful suggestions, but nothing that could be
         | taken intellectually seriously. It's just people scamming for
         | their own personal gain at the expense of others' lives.
        
           | matz1 wrote:
           | Many government all of the word chose lockdown, thats prime
           | example of not weighing cost benefit analysis.
        
         | fasteddie31003 wrote:
         | It's a theme I notice across society. We no longer are
         | consequentialists. We value the means over then ends. I believe
         | this switch in ethics will hurt our society in the long run.
        
           | Guzba wrote:
           | Isn't 'The ends justify the means' the argument of every
           | villain ever? Unrelated to this Tesla stuff, it seems
           | reasonable to observe that the means do actually matter.
        
             | rhino369 wrote:
             | But it shouldn't be just a villain argument. Sometimes the
             | ends justify the means and sometimes they don't. Depends--
             | entirety--on what the ends and the means are and the
             | relationship between the two.
             | 
             | But the end to Telsa throwing out unreliable Not-Even-
             | Close-to-FULL-SELF-DRIVING is to sell cars--not to usher in
             | a glorious era without traffic collisions.
        
             | hoseja wrote:
             | Villains are those the media makers want you to dislike.
             | Try sometimes noticing how many "villains" only want to
             | disrupt the status quo, with some murder superficially
             | tacked on for easy moral superiority.
        
           | donovanian wrote:
           | > We value the means over then ends.
           | 
           | I find this hard to square with a large segment of society
           | just matter-of-factly espousing "equity", which is a less
           | obvious way of saying what was expressed in the past as
           | "equality of outcome".
           | 
           | Of course, through societies of the past experimenting, it
           | was largely recognized as only possible through systems that
           | end up being miserable and authoritarian.
           | 
           | So it's easier to push it again to a new generation under a
           | vague, benign-sounding new term.
        
             | snowwrestler wrote:
             | Equity does not mean "equality of outcome," it means that
             | unequal outcomes are proportional to relevant factors only.
             | 
             | For example an equitable approach to criminal prosecution
             | is that people are exonerated or convicted based on the
             | best available evidence, with no variance attributable to
             | their ability to afford a lawyer (an equitable approach
             | enshrined in our Constitution but still a challenge for
             | society).
             | 
             | And an equitable approach of salary is that people are paid
             | in proportion to their contributions to the business, with
             | no variance attributable to the color of their skin (for
             | example).
             | 
             | We have to measure inputs and outcomes to infer the state
             | of equity because we don't have a reliable deterministic
             | model of society.
        
       | perardi wrote:
       | On the one hand: _caveat emptor_ , you should study the manual
       | and docs before you engage the limited automatic driving system
       | on your car.
       | 
       | On the other hand: calling something "Full Self-Driving", when it
       | is in fact definitely not fully self-driving, kind of flies in
       | the face of the obvious plain text reading of the phrase "Full
       | Self-Driving".
        
         | airhead969 wrote:
         | _What is really important in the world of doublespeak [that is,
         | marketing] is the ability to lie, whether knowingly or
         | unconsciously, and to get away with it; and the ability to use
         | lies and choose and shape facts selectively, blocking out those
         | that don't fit an agenda or program._
         | 
         | - Edward S. Herman
        
         | IshKebab wrote:
         | "You should study the manual before you use this potentially
         | deadly system" is about the dumbest way to design a potentially
         | deadly system ever.
         | 
         | Decades of experience has repeatedly taught that people are not
         | perfect robots that always read manuals, and if you design your
         | system under the assumption that they are then it is you that
         | is at fault, not them.
         | 
         | There's a reason we have safety interlocks and dead man
         | switches and seat belts and helmets and ... It's no use having
         | a manual that says "do not open the microwave door while it is
         | running".
        
       | impostervt wrote:
       | I just test drove a model 3 today. Fun car! I ended up ordering
       | one.
       | 
       | But as a software developer myself..there is no WAY I'd let the
       | car drive itself. I'm a pretty decent developer, and maybe
       | Tesla's developers are better, but knowing how many mistakes I
       | make in code...just hell no.
        
         | camjohnson26 wrote:
         | The fact that they're talking about finishing QA weeks before
         | releasing beta FSD software tells me everything I need to know.
         | Watching any random YouTube video of the functionality fills in
         | the gaps.
        
       | CrazyCatDog wrote:
       | We need an infrastructure architect here in the us. The bus I
       | commute on went under, and I can't be trusted to drive 120 miles
       | a day and keep my speed in check. I started looking at the most
       | automated rides I could find (Tesla is leagues ahead if I'm not
       | mistaken), and I'm still... driving.
       | 
       | I for one, would be more than happy to prolong my commute, on a
       | dedicated, reduced speed lane, if it meant I could sit in the
       | back seat and work. The belief that we'll incrementally get to
       | level 5 besides human drivers on the extant infrastructure
       | (lanes) is very misplaced.
       | 
       | Fingers crossed that the feds can develop a roadmap (sorry!) to
       | support the transition from level 2 to level 5. It will not
       | happen on open roadways--lidar or not!
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | ph2082 wrote:
         | Whoever come up with a this levels in autonomous driving
         | (L1-L5) must be marketing genius. Ideally it should have been
         | Yes or No answer to "does your car support autonomous driving
         | ?", just like alive or dead. Right now, it is just another
         | reason in list of Road accident deaths, till it perfected.
        
           | Karunamon wrote:
           | This is law, so now you have to define "autonomous driving"
           | in an unambiguous way.
           | 
           | Hence, levels. Besides, we're in a transitional period on
           | this tech, so I think there's value in defining "how"
           | automatic the experience is.
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | It seems a fairly reasonable set of levels. For example, L4
           | seems like something that may be achievable in the
           | foreseeable future if it means something like full autonomy
           | on designated interstates in some weather conditions. That
           | actually sounds like something that would be very useful for
           | a lot of people (and probably a big safety benefit). It just
           | doesn't do anything about eliminating private car ownership
           | or the need to be able to drive at all. But, personally,
           | those are of less interest to me anyway.
        
         | xirbeosbwo1234 wrote:
         | >Tesla is leagues ahead if I'm not mistaken
         | 
         | You are. Pretty much every other manufacturer offers adaptive
         | cruise control, lane keeping, and the like. They're just honest
         | about their capabilities.
        
           | SECProto wrote:
           | Comparing Tesla's "full self driving" features to adaptive
           | cruise control or lanekeeping is a very dishonest
           | representation of the capabilities.
        
         | bluefirebrand wrote:
         | > The bus I commute on went under, and I can't be trusted to
         | drive 120 miles a day and keep my speed in check.
         | 
         | I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest part of the problem
         | here is a 60 mile commute twice a day. That's an absurd
         | distance to drive for a job.
        
           | CrazyCatDog wrote:
           | Totally agree but I serve two masters; both of which treat me
           | very well--so not only is the commute the worst part of my
           | day, it's also the only negative part of the day.
        
         | zhdc1 wrote:
         | > I can't be trusted to drive 120 miles a day and keep my speed
         | in check
         | 
         | If it's a matter of occasionally going over or under the speed
         | limit (or if the speed limit on your route has sudden changes),
         | you may want to look into getting a vehicle with a manual speed
         | limiter. That, along with something like Waze, can be a big
         | help.
        
           | eganist wrote:
           | I believe Jag and Land Rover (same company) both have this,
           | and it's immensely helpful. It's basically the inverse of
           | cruise: rather than setting a speed floor that the car
           | cruises at, it sets a speed ceiling that you can't exceed
           | (unless you push through the kickdown on the throttle in some
           | cars with a limiter, in which case the car assumes an
           | emergent circumstance and bypasses the limiter for that
           | circumstance)
        
             | CrazyCatDog wrote:
             | My wife's bmw has it too--but that's too easy to disengage.
             | Needing to pull over and get out to change the limiter
             | would cool any road rage. I should have said: I'm willing
             | to accept a longer commute and up to twice as costly
             | autonomous vehicle over the alternative which is me having
             | to pay attention and frustrated for 60 minutes twice a day
             | ---even once a week!
        
             | omgwtfbyobbq wrote:
             | Tesla has that too (speed limit mode).
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | effingwewt wrote:
           | Or you know, cruise control.
        
         | random5634 wrote:
         | I've thought this would be great for longer runs. Put a wire in
         | the road or something for the vehicles to follow. Once you are
         | on the wire some protocol for merge points (also marked on the
         | wire) etc.
        
           | CrazyCatDog wrote:
           | This is one of the options, have radar on board pointing down
           | to follow the line, sensors are each end of the car...
        
         | zapita wrote:
         | You're in luck. The Democratic majority in US congress has just
         | announced yesterday that their next priority after passing the
         | American Rescue Act will be a national infrastructure plan.
         | 
         | https://twitter.com/hugolowell/status/1370488211034755072
        
       | ablekh wrote:
       | I don't understand why Tesla has been and still is allowed to use
       | the term _Full Self Driving_ (FSD) to imply, that is advertise,
       | something that clearly is not and will not be in the near(est)
       | future. Where is FTC, which is supposed to protect and enforce
       | _truth in advertising_ in the U.S. (https://www.ftc.gov/news-
       | events/media-resources/truth-advert...)? Especially considering
       | that relevant false advertising (in terms of the naming / use of
       | the FSD term, not the actual feature set) clearly can negatively
       | affect the driver's judgement on manually controlling a car in
       | various situations and, thus, ultimately, the safety of the
       | driver and passengers.
        
         | omgwtfbyobbq wrote:
         | Probably because of the small print/legalese.
         | 
         |  _The currently enabled features require active driver
         | supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous. The
         | activation and use of these features are dependent on achieving
         | reliability far in excess of human drivers as demonstrated by
         | billions of miles of experience, as well as regulatory
         | approval, which may take longer in some jurisdictions. As these
         | self-driving features evolve, your car will be continuously
         | upgraded through over-the-air software updates._
        
           | garmaine wrote:
           | That doesn't matter. You don't get claim something which is
           | clearly false in commonsensical interpretation, but get away
           | with it because the fine print.
           | 
           | You can't say "the sky is green[1]" and then in footnote [1]
           | say "by green, we mean blue." That's not allowed, and the FTC
           | is supposed to prosecute this. You _can_ say  "the sky is
           | cerulean[1]" and then note that although cerulean can be
           | categorized as either green or blue, in this context you mean
           | blue. But calling the feature "full self driving" when it is
           | not full self driving is more akin to outright calling the
           | sky green.
        
           | ablekh wrote:
           | I understand it. That is why I have emphasized above ( _" in
           | terms of the naming / use of the FSD term, not the actual
           | feature set"_) that, regardless of the small print / legalese
           | / disclaimers / clarifications etc., I believe that using
           | confusing and not matching current capabilities terms should
           | not be allowed. I might be wrong (as I'm not a lawyer), but I
           | think that it is well within FTC's jurisdiction and power to
           | enforce _both truthfulness and clarity_ of advertising in the
           | U.S.
        
             | saganus wrote:
             | I wonder if they could try to switch to something like
             | "Fully-assisted Self Driving" to keep the original FSD
             | accronym, if the term ends up being regulated.
        
               | ablekh wrote:
               | Use of an acronym requires a prior use of a relevant
               | definition (spell out), which is _the_ term. The
               | expression  "Fully-assisted Self Driving" is no less
               | incorrect / ambiguous than the original one. Therefore,
               | Tesla would continue violating the same principle of
               | truth and clarity in advertising as well as, perhaps,
               | some policies and/or laws.
        
               | camjohnson26 wrote:
               | Not to mention the Term "Full Self Driving" was
               | originally created to disambiguate "self driving", which
               | may still require driver assistance. FSD was sold as a
               | robotaxi software that could make you money while you
               | sleep, while it has always been nothing more than a level
               | 2 system, as Tesla admits in the fine print and to
               | regulators. Musk on Twitter contradicts this
               | consistently.
        
           | fma wrote:
           | Someone can successfully sue Subway for advertising a
           | footlong sub that isn't always 12"...but Tesla and
           | FSD...slapping fine print lets them off the hook...
        
             | boomboomsubban wrote:
             | That lawsuit wasn't successful, partially because Subway's
             | use of the term "footlong" is not supposed to be taken as
             | literally a foot long.
        
               | totalZero wrote:
               | I invite anyone who is interested in learning about the
               | arguments, as I was, to check out this article:
               | 
               | https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericgoldman/2016/02/29/why-
               | the-...
        
               | azinman2 wrote:
               | I'm shocked they even settled. Probably they felt it was
               | the cheapest action, but such a lawsuit feels quite
               | predatory. An important legal concept is harms done, and
               | as this Forbes article points out, there really weren't
               | any material harms done.
               | 
               | Now Tesla on the other hand, absolutely falls into the
               | realm of material harms done...
        
         | heavyset_go wrote:
         | What blows my mind is that this promotional Tesla video[1] has
         | been online for almost 5 years, with this claim in the video
         | description:
         | 
         | > _The person in the driver's seat is only there for legal
         | reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself._
         | 
         | [1] https://www.tesla.com/videos/autopilot-self-driving-
         | hardware...
        
         | Animats wrote:
         | Tesla is not allowed to do that in Europe.[1] In the US, they
         | got away with a lot during the Trump administration. That seems
         | to be changing. From the NTSB statement:
         | 
         |  _" The success of these AVs depends on the driver completing a
         | monitoring task that requires sustained attention; however,
         | humans generally perform poorly in the role of monitor. Also,
         | if the automated control system behaves consistently and
         | reliably for prolonged periods, the user of that system can
         | become complacent about its operation and may not respond
         | appropriately when a situation requires him or her to act."_
         | 
         | The NTSB people see this clearly because they investigate
         | aviation accidents. Over reliance on automation is a known
         | problem in aviation. The aviation systems are pretty good, but
         | they are not yet good enough to be the pilot in command. Pilot
         | training covers this in detail. Drivers are not trained that
         | way.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/14/tesla-autopilot-self-
         | driving...
        
           | prox wrote:
           | That creates a strange situation where a monitor would need
           | more training vs a driving license? Or would that require an
           | overhaul of the training itself?
        
             | neltnerb wrote:
             | I think that's not especially strange when these partially
             | automated systems aren't fully autonomous yet.
             | 
             | I would have a hard time arguing against requiring a few
             | hours of class time learning about exactly what the systems
             | do and what pitfalls there are because those things are not
             | at all like what anyone has ever been taught in drivers ed
             | before.
        
         | airhead969 wrote:
         | 100% natural, cage-free, hormone-free self-driving.
         | 
         | Or as George Carlin called it: bullshit.
        
         | alkonaut wrote:
         | I don't understand why they even attempt to push beyond even
         | basic driver assistance. I'd buy a well built car with good
         | battery tech and a decent cruise control and never look back. I
         | don't mind driving for another 20 years if the car is reliable
         | and has good enough range. Making my car clever is so far down
         | on my car wishlist it's not even visible. The elephant in the
         | room is that even if there are _technological_ breakthroughs
         | shortenig  "FSD" from perhaps my pessismistic guess of 50 years
         | to an almost laghably optimistic 20 years, the legal mess it
         | will be stuck in will be at least as long as the technical one
         | was. Tesla seem to make very competitive cars even without
         | wasting money on self-driving ones. I'd try to keep that spot
         | instead of risking it by going down the FSD rabbit hole.
        
         | effingwewt wrote:
         | Indeed wasn't Germany the first to stop them from pulling this
         | shit? We in the US allow our advertisers to lie to us about
         | any- and everything, and they wonder why we hate advertising in
         | general.
         | 
         | Maybe we need to stop getting mad at the method and start
         | getting mad at the companies doing the lying.
         | 
         | I've said repeatedly I was ready to leave this country, but
         | only in the last 2 years have I begun actually making plans to
         | leave.
         | 
         | I'm voting with my feet, but where to go? Shouldn't take years
         | of careful planning to just up and go somewhere else.
        
       | ipsocannibal wrote:
       | Having driven a Model Y and a Model 3 I can say that until Tesla
       | removes that huge ass distraction magnet touchscreen from their
       | vehicles I won't buy one. In order to determine anything about
       | the status of the vehicle or change a setting you have to train
       | all of your attention off of the road and onto an overly
       | complicated cellphone interface. Autopliot is an optional
       | feature, that damn tablet is not. Adding a simple HUD that comes
       | standard on most Mazda's would be a huge improvement in safety.
        
         | airhead969 wrote:
         | There's something to be said for manual switches and gauges.
         | 
         | Another case in point: F-35.
         | 
         |  _Please swipe up and to the left to apply the brakes or draw a
         | peace symbol if you 'd like to eject instead of dying._ -
         | megacorp UX of the future
        
         | jonathankoren wrote:
         | I took a test drive in an S a few years ago, and also found the
         | interior ugly and the infotainment system lacking. The sales
         | guy was pushing the car hard with misdirection and
         | deceptions[0][1], even calling me days later. Eventually I had
         | just tell them to stop calling and told them exactly why I'd
         | never buy the car.
         | 
         | [0] "It has a streaming service like Pandora!" "Is it Pandora?"
         | "It's Sketcher. It's like Pandora!" "So it's not Pandora."
         | "No."
         | 
         | [1] "This car has full self driving." "So is it going to turn
         | here?" "No. It has FSD capability, but it's not on because of
         | regulatory approval. It should be here in a year to two." (That
         | was four years ago.)
        
         | BluSyn wrote:
         | Never going to happen. Some of us are the opposite, I can't
         | stand cars with a thousand nobs and dials that take a 100 page
         | manual to understand. I find the clutter 100x more distracting.
        
           | prepend wrote:
           | The choice isn't between a touchscreen and a thousand knobs.
           | 
           | My current car, a random 5 year old sedan has about 4-5 knobs
           | on the console I use- volume, heated seats, ac mode,
           | temperature, and nav knob that rotates, pushes in, and pushed
           | in 4 directions.
           | 
           | I can do all this without taking my eyes off the road.
           | 
           | I also have an 8 inch touchscreen that I never use because
           | it's too hard while driving.
        
           | jonathankoren wrote:
           | Can you explain how buttons are a distraction? Also, by
           | "distracting", do you mean that the present of physical knobs
           | prevent you from paying attention to the road?
        
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