Another day and another crash by a Tesla on Autopilot. People seem to put too much trust into the car’s autopilot feature. While the car manufacturer has stressed time and time again that even though the autopilot feature is on, it still requires active driver supervision. Tesla has advised drivers to always keep their hands on the steering wheel. However, people still like to sit in the backseat while the car uses its autopilot to drive.
The crash happened this Saturday when a 2015 Tesla Model S crashed into a parked Washington state deputy’s patrol vehicle. It happened around 6:40 pm in Snohomish County, north of Seattle. The irony is that the deputy was responding to a crashed vehicle and was parked with it’s emergency lights on when the Tesla crashed into it.
According to the Sheriff’s office, “This is a great reminder that vehicles may have autopilot to assist, but it cannot be relied upon to get you safely from one destination to the next”. Drivers have been constantly misusing the autopilot system on their Tesla’s which has led increasing number of accidents in recent months. Most of them because the drivers chose to sit in the backseat instead of the driver’s seat.
Tesla cars really love crashing into police vehicles though, a similar crash happened last August when a doctor from Raleigh, North Carolina was bust watching a movie while his Tesla was on autopilot. His car managed to nearly miss a police vehicle but proceeded to crash into two more.
This news comes at a bad time for Tesla though. The Department of Motor Vehicles of California has just announced yesterday that they are investigating the electric car maker for violating state regulations. The department says that Elon Musk’s company has been advertising its $10,000 “Full Self-Driving” feature, which expands on the company’s Autopilot driver assistance suite. However, the reality is that their cars are far from self-driving.
Self-driving would mean that the cars require no supervision and that the autopilot system is fully functional without supervision. However, Tesla’s vehicles are not able to drive by themselves and require active driver supervision.
Well, crashes like these can be avoided if people just figure out that playing video games in the backseat of their Teslas while the driver’s seat is empty is not the wisest of things to do.
