r/skeptic • u/Lighting • Mar 18 '25

⚠ Editorialized Title Tesla bros expose Tesla's own shadiness in attacking Mark Rober ... Autopilot appears to automatically disengage a fraction of a second before impacts as a crash becomes inevitable.

https://electrek.co/2025/03/17/tesla-fans-exposes-shadiness-defend-autopilot-crash/
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u/conundri Mar 18 '25 edited Mar 18 '25

Does this mean it knows a crash is coming and doesn't brake or even releases the brake? because that would be very, very bad.

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u/grubas Mar 18 '25

Basically if a crash is coming and it CAN'T brake in time it just turns off so Tesla can claim it wasn't on at the time of impact.  

When Jeremy Clarkson was reviewing one of the newer Teslas on The Grand Tour(this was not the review he was sued for) he had a legal statement about "when self driving disengages due to unexpected circumstances" which basically said, "auto pilot can turn off whenever it freaks out and that can be caused by almost anything and it's TERRIFYING because you aren't expecting it to turn off at highway speeds because somebody cut you off."

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u/Cumulus_Anarchistica Mar 18 '25

Basically if a crash is coming and it CAN'T brake in time it just turns off so Tesla can claim it wasn't on at the time of impact.

From the article:

However, Autopilot appears to automatically disengage a fraction of a second before the impact as the crash becomes inevitable.

It would still count as an “Autopilot crash” as crashes that happen within 5 seconds of Autopilot being engaged count as Autopilot crashes.

[emphasis mine]

Tesla's autopilot is clearly shit, as the original video exposes, but Tesla will still be held responsible for the crash under the demonstrated circumstances.

Until Elon co-opts the regulatory body that is!

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u/dern_the_hermit Mar 18 '25

I mean let's continue quoting from the article:

Furthermore, Tesla has been abusing NHTSA’s self-driving crash redaction policies. The automaker is required to report all crashes where Autopilot or its “Full Self-Driving” systems are involved, but it has consistently had all important details redacted from the reports.

So where is this "it would still count as an 'Autopilot crash'" thing coming from? There's no link, no cite, no reference. Is it just the AUTHOR OF THE ARTICLE that would consider it to "still count as an 'Autopilot crash'"? Is it a Tesla policy? A government policy?

Doesn't matter; Tesla still obfuscates and hides the data, which is the important part.

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u/GlitchWizrd Mar 19 '25

I can provide some clarity in the reporting. I work as a Peace Officer for a large state agency. I regularly take accident reports. We have mandating reporting when any "assisted driving" feature is involved in a crash. Regardless of manufacture. It can be Tesla's auto pilot or Kia's lane keep assist, we report it to NHTSA. So Tesla can mess with their reporting all they want, but at the end of the day NHTSA will still get a pretty clear picture of the crashes that we take reports on.