- Former employees revealed to The New York Times that automaker Elon Musk may have undermined safety in designing its Autopilot driver-assistance system to fit its CEO’s vision.
- There have been at least 12 accidents in which Teslas using Autopilot drove into parked fire trucks, police cars, and other emergency vehicles, killing one person and injuring 17 others.
- “Where I get concerned is the language that’s used to describe the capabilities of the vehicle,” said the chairwoman of the NTSB. “It can be very dangerous.”
Sarah Toce from Rawstory writes:
“Former employees have spoken with The New York Times to reveal automaker Elon Musk may have undermined safety in designing its Autopilot driver-assistance system to fit its chief executive’s vision.
“Unlike technologists at almost every other company working on self-driving vehicles, Mr. Musk insisted that autonomy could be achieved solely with cameras tracking their surroundings. But many Tesla engineers questioned whether it was safe enough to rely on cameras without the benefit of other sensing devices — and whether Mr. Musk was promising drivers too much about Autopilot’s capabilities,” writers Cade Metz and Neal E. Boudette mused in the story.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating Musk “after at least 12 accidents in which Teslas using Autopilot drove into parked fire trucks, police cars and other emergency vehicles, killing one person and injuring 17 others…Families are suing Tesla over fatal crashes, and Tesla customers are suing the company for misrepresenting Autopilot and a set of sister services called Full Self Driving, or F.S.D.,” the article read…”
See full story here.
Economic Left 
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