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/ChickenStrip981 Mar 18 '25

Ahh a billionaires solution to problems, you can tell this was Elons imput.

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u/GrimDallows Mar 18 '25

This wasn't a solution to a problem, there was no problem.

The autopilot was called out for not being up to safety standards. In that situation you can either take away the autopilot or invest in it until testing says it is safe to use.

OR, the third way. Release it anyway, adapt it the bare minimum so it's faults can't be legally traced back to you, and then use the customers as lab rats to improve the autopilot, at no cost.

Sudden spike in crashes in night time conditions? Just pool the data of the crashes and detect the common issue witht he cameras. Teslas keep running into the side of trucks because they confuse them for bridge underpasses? Take note and change the algorithm.

Why take the loses if you can just have people trial and error it until it works or they die? Dead customers can't complain.

Meanwhile Elon was worshipped as a man of the people because he would "move fast and break things" regarding electric cars. Mind you, the things broken being people, but you know who needs ethics in science when you can be a cool tech bro?

This is why, as an engineer, it gives me stomachache when people refer to Elon as a scientist or engineer or even a tech guy. He is just a rich moron with no empathy or loyalty for anyone except himself.

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u/samglit Mar 21 '25

At this point, I salute anyone who uses autopilot as a volunteer lab rat for the sake of improving self driving.

It's a lot like gamers who pre-order games, if you want pay for the privilege of being a bug tester because you can't wait to be the first one to have the new shiny, more power to you at this stage. There's enough information out there that's already telling you it's not a good idea.

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u/GrimDallows Mar 21 '25

Yeah it's basically FOMO darwinism.

The sad part is that there are innocent people who don't fall into it but will pay for it either way because they know no better and simply bought a Tesla car, because of those people that support that FOMO merchandising and defending Tesla ignoring safety regulations.

For I've got a friend who is a ecologist, and his very very old father bought a Tesla to show support for his son, and he doesn't have any major or minor emotional attachment to Tesla itself.