They were meant to change the way we travel, but now, it looks like they are giving us only problems, not any benefits.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the U.S. auto safety regulator, on Monday said that it had opened a broad investigation of the Autopilot system used in hundreds of thousands of Tesla’s electric cars. The probe covers 765,000 vehicles, almost everything that the company has sold in the U.S. since the beginning of the 2014 model year.
The investigation was triggered by at least 11 accidents since 2018 in which Tesla vehicles on Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control have hit vehicles at scenes where first responders have used flashing lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board, or cones warning of hazards. Of the crashes identified by the NHTSA as part of the investigation, 17 people were injured and one was killed. The accidents under probe occurred between January 22, 2018, and July 10, 2021, across nine different states. Post the news of the investigation, the shares of Tesla plunged 5% in morning trading.
What Is Autopilot?
Autopilot is the brand name for Tesla’s partially automated driving system, and it combines adaptive cruise control with automatic steering, and lane changing. The features include the ability for the Tesla vehicle to steer, accelerate, and brake-all autonomously, and automatically — within its lane.
Even though Tesla’s manuals note the driver needs to pay full attention, the feature has been marketed as a hands-free system. Once CEO Elon Musk appeared on television news shows by being behind the wheel of various Tesla vehicles, and he had his hands raised high in the air, which indicated the Autopilot could be a complete hands-free system.
Why Self-Driving Cars?
Self-driving cars sound cool, and why wouldn’t they be? Who wouldn’t want a future where cars can drive themselves, reducing road accidents, and preventing the loss of lives? In fact, an alarming 94% of serious crashes are down to human error, says NHTSA. So, fully autonomous vehicles would make the roads safe for drivers, passengers, cyclists, and pedestrians.
Autonomous vehicles will also improve parking in congested cities, as these vehicles could simply drop passengers off and move on. So, if only fewer people need to find a parking space, then the land that is used to construct parking spaces could be repurposed for housing or attractive public spaces. A study by the University of California, Davis suggested that automated vehicles could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 80% by 2050. But these emissions could only be reduced only if the vehicles are electric and shared. But still, this will help the planet to a great extent.
It sounds like self-driving cars will help us build a better future. That’s why many technology companies are getting behind the concept. Google launched its Waymo division to develop, and market consumer-ready driverless vehicles around the globe. Baidu is a leading Chinese autonomous technology company, and it has partnerships with several firms, including Volkswagen, BMW, Ford, and a series of Chinese carmakers.
Argo AI is another autonomous driving tech company, and both Ford, and Volkswagen have invested billions in this firm. Nvidia is one of the leaders in both autonomous hardware, and software. The tech that makes its GPUs effective for cryptocurrency mining also makes it highly effective for neural network processing, and autonomous vehicles.
It’s Not Easy
Self-driving cars sound like an amazing concept in theory, but it is not that easy to make a perfect automated car in real life. The accidents are a proof of that. Self-driving cars were supposed to minimise road accidents, because that’s what we’ve been told. Earlier in April, Elon Musk said that Autopilot can help reduce accidents by as much as 50%. But what’s the problem now?
To understand more about this, let us take a look at the problems with Tesla’s Autopilot. Tesla’s Autopilot systems appears to have difficulty identifying, and braking for parked cars generally, which includes private cars, and trucks without flashing lights. For example, in July, a Tesla crashed into a parked sport utility vehicle. According to the California Highway Patrol, the driver had Autopilot on, and then fell asleep, and later failed a sobriety test.
Alain Kornhauser, director of the self-driving car program at Princeton University, told the Los Angeles Times, “Teslas are running into stationary objects… They shouldn’t be.” Sam Abuelsamid, an expert in self-driving vehicles and principal analyst at Guidehouse Insights told CNN, “When it (Tesla’s Autopilot feature) works, which can be most of the time, it can be very good.” “But it can easily be confused by things that humans would have no problem with. Machine visions are not as adaptive as humans. And the problem is that all machine systems sometimes make silly errors,” Abuelsamid added.
In The End
We have learnt that self-driving cars have the potential to make our lives easier, but making the vehicles is definitely not easy. Earlier in 2015, The Guardian predicted that in 2020, you will be a “permanent backseat driver.” Then, in 2016, Business Insider said, “10 million self-driving cars will be on the road by 2020.” Later, General Motors, Waymo, Toyota, and Honda said that they would be making self-driving cars by 2020. Even Musk said that Tesla would do it by 2018, but all Tesla has achieved until now is car crashes, and investigations.
Now, we are on the eighth month of 2021, and still there are no signs that self-driving cars will hit the road anytime soon. For now, companies should focus on improving features on semi-automated vehicles, so that consumers can get comfortable with the idea of automated cars. More testing needs to be done, and companies should be transparent about how their tests go. There is money to be made in this industry, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be rushed. We need self-driving cars, but we also want them to be safe. So, let’s hope Musk takes a note of that.
