Monday 4 July 2016

Tesla Car Crash

The recent Tesla car crash which raised a million questions regarding the safety of self driven cars also raises questions if the concept of auto-pilot in autonomous self driven cars really is the future?
The fatal crash that resulted in one death took place in Florida, USA a couple of months back this year but has been declared to the public recently by both Tesla and NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Authority). The accident happened when a person cruising on the Autopilot of his Tesla Model S was hit by a tractor trailer joining the highway from the right end hit the car at a very high speed. The irony of the situation is that neither the drivers instincts, not the sensor's intelligence could detect the arriving trailer resulting in a tragic loss of life.

Later, Tesla claimed as a justification for the event that the Autopilot mode installed in their cars as a part of their much speculated technological advancement, often looked up as the next big thing in the automobile industry, is a driving assistant feature that requires the driver to keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times and the driver needs to maintain control and stability at all times while using this feature.



We understand that some of you might be feelings cheated, specially reflecting to all the buzz Tesla created about their altered new technology and later re-phrasing their sentences to get away with the mess. Though Tesla now accepts that the feature is a part of the beta version being tested however it gets us to a clear realisation that even though we heavily rely on technology, we are still unable to program and predict all types of outcomes that might come up on the way. Technology developments in the field of self driven cars is surely a long way to go. 

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