[danso]

The text at the top of the homepage for Tesla Autopilot is this:

> Full Self-Driving Hardware on All Cars

> All Tesla vehicles produced in our factory, including Model 3, have the hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver.

Whatever theory you have for Tesla's naming of their feature, it doesn't match with their marketing.

[slg]

You are reading into that text more than you should. Autopilot and full self-driving are two separate features. Autopilot can be used today. Full self-driving can be purchased today but won't be activated until some unknown future date. Those features are separate configurable options when purchasing the car that come with their own prices. Tesla makes it clear enough that any owner should know those are two separate features. The text you highlighted is simply promising that any car purchased today can activate full self-driving down the line with no additional hardware costs.

[danso]

> You are reading into that text more than you should.

The page's title is "Autopilot | Tesla". It is the first result for "tesla autopilot" in search results. And "autopilot" appears 9 times on the page. So if that's not an intentional attempt to mislead consumers into conflating Autopilot with "full self-driving", then what would such an attempt look like, hypothetically?

[slg]

Is it crazy to hold a driver to a higher standard than simply Googling "Tesla autopilot" and only reading the first paragraph of the first result? If you read that entire page, the difference between autopilot and full self-driving is clear. If you read the car's manual, the difference is clear. If you look at the configurator for the car, the difference is clear when you have to pay $3,000 extra for full self-driving. I am not sure how any responsible Tesla owner could think that this is only a single feature.

[buvanshak]

>Is it crazy to hold a driver to a higher standard than simply Googling "Tesla autopilot" and only reading the first paragraph of the first result?

That is damn crazy. You should consider your users to be complete idiots when improper use of the thing can endanger lives.

Why are we even debating this?

[tnegoshi]

> Is it crazy to hold a driver to a higher standard than simply Googling "Tesla autopilot" and only reading the first paragraph of the first result?

For this standard it would have to apply to every driver. Should drivers who do not google "Tesla autopilot", let alone ones that do and read on in a section about said autopilot feature, be punished with death in a two ton metal trap?

[slg]

I really don't see how this is different than other features of a car like cruise control. It is up to the driver to educate themselves about cruise control. I was not part of my driver education class. There were no questions about it during the tests to get my license. I didn't learn how it worked until I was in my 20s when I first owned a car that had cruise control and I learned by reading that car's manual. I don't think anyone would have blamed the manufacturer if I killed myself because I didn't understand how cruise control worked or if I used it improperly.

[danso]

Is it crazy to ask a car-making company to create 2 separate webpages when describing completely different systems?

[slg]

It isn’t crazy to ask that, but I think it is crazy to view failing to create two pages as an intentional attempt to deceive or as something that absolves drivers of their own responsibilities.

[sokoloff]

Hypothetically, it might say that all Tesla cars being built today have both the hardware and software to make full self-driving possible.

It doesn’t; what it does say is perfectly clear to me.

[danso]

That would ostensibly be a lie.

[sokoloff]

Yes, I know.

It remains an answer to "what would such an attempt [to intentionally mislead consumers] look like, hypothetically?"

[kolpa]

If autopilot crashes at a lower rate than the average driver, they are correct, but autopilot+attentive driver would still be better than either alone.

[danso]

The current thread is about what Tesla means by use of "autopilot". The parent commenter was telling us that Tesla only intends for it to have the same meaning as it does in aviation. My response is pointing out how Tesla seems to imply "autopilot" involves "full self-driving".

[vkou]

At what point is an attentive driver expected to notice that autopilot has silently failed? The video linked at the top of the thread has a <1 second interval between the car failing to follow its lane, and plowing into a concrete barrier.

This is actually harder to do then just driving the car.