[fricat1ve]

I doubt it's really about legal issues. Could they just disable or scale back the autopilot? Or at least warn people to not rely on it while avoiding any commentary about the facts of the accident. That'd be more polite/deferential to the investigators and to the victim.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's some fear over allowing uncertainty to fester for a year while awaiting the results of the investigation. But I think there's a much bigger risk in being perceived as unwilling to play by the same rules as everyone else.

[slg]

>Could they just disable or scale back the autopilot?

The problem with this is that Tesla clearly believes that autopilot plus an attentive driver is safer than an attentive driver alone. I think that is most likely true.

It is possible that autopilot plus an inattentive driver is less safe than an attentive driver alone. I think this is plausible, but I don't think there is any real evidence to prove this one way or another.

The question then becomes does Tesla have an obligation to save the people in the second group from themselves and in turn put the people in the first group in greater danger?

[fricat1ve]

Still doesn't explain why they couldn't just release a statement warning people not to rely on the autopilot until the authorities have completed their investigation.

That avoids prejudging whether it was primarily a defect with the vehicle, or driver error, or both.

Above all just respect the process. It's important to yield to an impartial entity when people have been hurt or killed.