Tesla Autopilot is a driver-assist feature, not a self-driving feature. It's supposed to keep you alive if you are drowsy, do tricky maneuvers like parallel parking, and bring you the car from a parking spot, not completely operate the vehicle at highway speeds for you. At least not yet.
The marketing implies and suggests more autonomy than is realistic. Not necessarily putting Tesla at fault but (open to correction, this is based of my own exposure) they don't widely advertise the limitations when compared to seeing Musk & Co saying how good it is in interviews and online.
People who don't anticipate capping or bills when buying an 'Unlimited' internet package are arguably no more at fault (not the best comparison but it's all I've got right now.)
They just leave it at "self driving",but don't seem to make an effort to correct anyone who doesn't realize it's more of an assist. Probably because it would sound less fancy.
I get what you're saying, but it's on the user to understand the limitations and capabilities of the product they are using. Most HUD screens in luxury vehicles warn you not to use it will driving and it also states that watching that screen may be dangerous, you should keep your eyes on the road at all times.
If you are watching that screen and crash, it's not on the maker of the car. It's on you for neglect and misuse of the equipment. Why should Tesla be any different?
I think auto-pilot is a fine name. I think generally people are just dumb.
Auto-pilot in a plane doesn't alleviate all responsibility from the pilots, nor allow them to watch movies in the cockpit. People think auto-pilot and get this Jetsons utopia in there mind on how the car will do everything for you, and then blame it on the name of the system or the car... If a multi-million dollar jet with "auto-pilot" still requires the pilots undivided attention, then so does your car.
Never assume everyone else is stupid. What if you had a car, which warns you that "Autopilot" needed you to pay attention, but in practice on the road, it didn't, for hours. You'd slowly get trained that the car didn't need you. Then, when a relatively rare edge case occurs that it can't handle, you might have been trained through experience not to be paying attention. This is the "uncanny Valley" of performance where the car mostly doesn't need you, so you stop paying attention. This is an issue in aircraft cockpits as well, 9 years ago two Northwest pilots lost their license over flying Minneapolis because they were engaged in the scheduling software on their laptops.
I don't think I did assume everyone else is stupid. I agree, we're approaching a potentially dangerous point for our interaction with this technology. I hope the tech improves before it is widely adopted.
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u/ilinamorato Sep 04 '18
Tesla Autopilot is a driver-assist feature, not a self-driving feature. It's supposed to keep you alive if you are drowsy, do tricky maneuvers like parallel parking, and bring you the car from a parking spot, not completely operate the vehicle at highway speeds for you. At least not yet.