> With nobody paying attention to the car’s actions, the Tesla software ignored Jeffrey Nissen on his motorcycle and continued on at speed. The car rear-ended the two-wheeler, Nissen was flung from the bike, and his life ended pinned underneath the electric car, where he was still lodged when police arrived to the scene.
Personal anecdote: A couple decades ago, I was rear-ended. (No permanent injuries, though my car was totaled.) In addition to the red light that I was stopped at, my brake lights, and my bright red car - it was full daylight - the at-fault driver could have noticed the other 3 lanes of traffic stopped at that red light. But she did not, because (she said) her nose was too deep in the (large, paper) map that she was trying to read as she drove.
While I'm sure that "Tesla" gets the clicks, and I've a pretty low opinion of both Tesla's self-driving tech and how they represent it - the boring fact is that inattentive drivers have never needed any personal electronics, nor clever cars, nor any other cool or interesting "help" to cause horrible accidents.
Personal anecdote: A couple decades ago, I was rear-ended. (No permanent injuries, though my car was totaled.) In addition to the red light that I was stopped at, my brake lights, and my bright red car - it was full daylight - the at-fault driver could have noticed the other 3 lanes of traffic stopped at that red light. But she did not, because (she said) her nose was too deep in the (large, paper) map that she was trying to read as she drove.
While I'm sure that "Tesla" gets the clicks, and I've a pretty low opinion of both Tesla's self-driving tech and how they represent it - the boring fact is that inattentive drivers have never needed any personal electronics, nor clever cars, nor any other cool or interesting "help" to cause horrible accidents.