I read that the Tesla kept driving for 700 feet after it went under the truck and then 200 more feet off the road. The question raised was whether 1) the Tesla kept driving, instead of shutting off after a collision or 2) was moving so fast that momentum moved it that far. Anybody know anything about that?

 

I'd guess the system disengaged after the crash and then the car just coasted those last 900 feet.

 

We lack the infrastructure for truly autonomous driving. I think safest route for roll out of auto pilot will be in dedicated lanes with P2P communication synchronizing vehicle movements. I see this trickling down from interstates and commercial trucking to secondary highways and private vehicles. Once P2P comm becomes ubiquitous, the AP lane can become the "analog" lane instead and the AP can rule the road.

NHTSA is going to shit all over this autopilot business. I predict a new chapter in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards which does not seem to currently include any content on cruise control from my quick review.

 

this kind of stuff reminds me of the movie "i, robot"

all i know is i would not want me or my loved ones to be on the receiving end of a freak accident involving any car on autopilot

i suppose the likelihood of some idiot texting and driving into me is probably still more likely

people should always drive defensively to stay alive, but they don't, and technology won't save idiocy or laziness. I've literally witnessed an SUV with a lane change warning light lit red and maybe even flashing on its side view mirror trying to merge into me...

 

Another Tesla crash reported. Wait till they offer driverless semi trucks.........

http://www.freep.com/story/money/car...rash/86712884/

 

"On May 18, eleven days after Brown died, Tesla and CEO Elon Musk, in combination (roughly three parts Tesla, one part Musk), sold more than $2 billion of Tesla stock in a public offering at a price of $215 per share—and did it without ever having released a word about the crash.
To put things baldly, Tesla and Musk did not disclose the very material fact that a man had died while using an auto-pilot technology that Tesla had marketed vigorously as safe and important to its customers."
http://www.autoblog.com/2016/07/06/e...topilot-crash/

On the one hand, Tesla is a for-profit business and Elon Musk is running that business.
On the other hand, this was a morally disgusting move.

 

I imagine a lawsuit or investigation will be forthcoming. This is absolutely a material fact and possibly falls under insider trading classification as well.

 

Holy shit!

 

This...the shit has hit the fan...

 

Of course, whether that's a "material fact" is up for discussion. The stock is still trading at the same level it has been May ($215-ish), and didn't have any significant reaction to news of this crash. And the stock was around $150/share as recently as February. So it would seem that the market does not consider this crash to be a material fact.

I get that autopilot is a new technology, but people crash cars all the time. And this guy seemed to be misusing the autopilot as well.