Autonomous cars have killed pedestrians and now they are killing drivers. The fascination with a self-driving car should be kept to the research and development team until further notice as it is still not ready to be deployed even in modern organised cities. The Tesla vehicle involved in a fatal crash last month in Northern California was operating on Autopilot, the automaker has just confirmed. But Tesla contends that the victim and a damaged highway barrier share in the blame (how is the highway barrier to blame?).
The Model X SUV crashed in Mountain View, in California’s Silicon Valley, on March 23, killing its driver, Apple engineer Walter Huang, 38. So, it is clear that even an educated driver believes too much that the autonomous car will avoid an accident.
Tesla said that the driver did not have his hands on the steering wheel for 6-seconds before the crash, despite several warnings from the vehicle. This is driver negligence, but still the car should have sensors working to avoid an accident.
Tesla tells drivers that although its Autopilot system can keep speed, change lanes and self-park, it requires drivers to keep their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel in order to take control of the vehicle and avoid accidents. Tesla said its vehicle logs show the driver took no action to stop the car from crashing into a concrete lane divider.
This really is not about the safety of electric cars vs normal cars or whatever; it’s just about the fact you’ll never be totally invulnerable in a car when it crashes into a frikin’ concrete barrier. Simple as that.