The Tesla autopilot has been in the news more often that we’d like recently. Worse than that, it has been in the news because it is being blamed responsible for another deadly crash in a Tesla car. So what exactly do we know about what happened, and what are news outlets just deciding to take down Tesla given the momentum.
What we know: The car crash took place initially in 2018, and it is back in the news because the NTSB - the national transport and safety board in the U.S. has had the hearing and put partial blame on the driver for playing a video game during his drive, when he put auto-pilot on. The car mistook a recently changed road for the main road and drove itself into a pylon on the side of the road. This killed the driver and has had an alarming backlash on Tesla.
The NTSB blames Tesla stating that the autopilot is to some extent a Beta test of a full-proof Autopilot and that people should be careful. They are also stating that people using the Autopilot feature on their Teslas are basically behaving as testers for the software and that they should always have their hands on the wheel. Tesla does acknowledge that their autopilot is still safer than drivers manually driving their cars, and that’s as much as they’ve commented on their incident.
In my personal opinion we know that these cars are incredible pieces of engineering. Yet am I going to fully turn my eyes off the road when i’m putting my car into autopilot at any time? Will I just ignore the road when I have my family in the car? Absolutely not. At the end of the day I think it is up to us drivers to realize that these cars will be improving over time but the risks we take should be acknowledged. It is also important to note that the driver had commented on the fact that the car kept steering in that direction around 4 days before the crash. Given that the driver knew that and still kept on playing on his phone and not paying any attention to the road seems like there could’ve been more done on his part to avoid the accident.
It is always sad to hear of such tragic news, and makes us doubt the choice of car that we decided on. That is understandable to some extent, but we still need to realize that these are the safest cars out there, and that we’re not looking into how many lives it's saving. I am completely content with my decision and will not waiver in my absolute support for Tesla as a company. I have been driving their cars for almost 2 years now and have enjoyed every minute of it. They are making the best cars the world has ever seen in every and all aspects of it.
Once again, if you’re looking to buy or sell a used Tesla, we are the UK’s exclusive Tesla online marketplace. Our aim is to make the process of finding a used Tesla in the UK. Till next time!