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by clashmoore 1288 days ago
Tesla was found to be deactivating the autopilot mode at the second before a crash [0]. I think it's for a dubious reason so that Tesla could declare none of their cars were in autopilot/FSD mode when involved in a crash.

[0] PDF https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/inv/2022/INOA-EA22002-3184.PDF

"The agency’s analysis of these sixteen subject first responder and road maintenance vehicle crashes indicated that Forward Collision Warnings (FCW) activated in the majority of incidents immediately prior to impact and that subsequent Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) intervened in approximately half of the collisions. On average in these crashes, Autopilot aborted vehicle control less than one second prior to the first impact."
1 comments
agumonkey 1288 days ago
I fail to understand how would anyone at the top of any serious company would think bailing out at the last second would absolve them of anything.
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phatfish 1287 days ago
The CEO of Tesla seems to think it does. He tried to bail on the Twitter acquisition at the last second. Didn't work out well obviously.

Pretty sure he has the exact same attitude to the liabilities involving people getting killed by using his "Full Self Driving" beta test.

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pms 1287 days ago
It's for PR, so that they can publicly release statistics showing good results on paper. An average consumer will learn the good-looking statistics and spread the word about Tesla safety, as it already happens, without taking the above report into account, since it's buried underneath tens of comments and I imagine Tesla will also fight it in some ways. Then, the average consumer will believe that FSD is indeed safer than a human driver, and buy the system. If crash happens, Tesla doesn't provide legal liability. I imagine most cases will be closed and, overall, Tesla will be at a profit, so why not do it?
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Havoc 1288 days ago
Not intended to absolve them legally but likely rather to create grey area for public announcements.
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agumonkey 1287 days ago
at best the only value I'd see is the ability to have newspaper write "tesla SDV wasn't on when crash happened".. actually a good amount of PR leverage I admit
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dilznoofus 1287 days ago
It's the old capitalist adage, "the pilot never goes down with the ship"
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