Am I reading the article correctly that the "critical safety gap" is the fact that autopilot allows people to lose focus by only nagging them through sounds instead of say, stopping or randomly disengaging autopilot?
I don’t think you’re reading it right. The article ends on this quote:
> “People are dying due to misplaced confidence in Tesla Autopilot capabilities. Even simple steps could improve safety,” Koopman said. “Tesla could automatically restrict Autopilot use to intended roads based on map data already in the vehicle. Tesla could improve monitoring so drivers can’t routinely become absorbed in their cellphones while Autopilot is in use.”
One of the failures of autopilot is that it doesn’t restrict its use to only the environments in which it was tested and “proven” safe (enough, anyway).
> “People are dying due to misplaced confidence in Tesla Autopilot capabilities. Even simple steps could improve safety,” Koopman said. “Tesla could automatically restrict Autopilot use to intended roads based on map data already in the vehicle. Tesla could improve monitoring so drivers can’t routinely become absorbed in their cellphones while Autopilot is in use.”
One of the failures of autopilot is that it doesn’t restrict its use to only the environments in which it was tested and “proven” safe (enough, anyway).