Here we go again: in Paris a taxi driver crashes with a Tesla and blames the autonomous driving system. And the Autopilot safety issue reopens because the car first hit a cyclist and two pedestrians, then knocked down a traffic light, destroyed a glass collection bin and finished the mad race against a pickup truck crossing a crossroad. We are talking about a Tesla 3 which, as a precaution, the G7 taxi company, one of the main ones in the capital with about 9,000 taxis, has suspended from service: 37 throughout the Paris region. The drivers of these machines, for the moment, cannot use them. A hard blow, no doubt about it.
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But it must be said that Tesla writes everywhere that this system is not completely autonomous and requires driver intervention. And that according to an investigation (the source, however, is Tesla himself), autopilot cars are ten times safer than normal ones. Each new Tesla vehicle is equipped with 8 external cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors and a powerful on-board computer to provide an extra layer of safety and accompany you along the journey. The Model 3 and Model Y manufactured for the North American market have switched to the camera-based Tesla Vision system, which does not rely on any radar but on Tesla’s advanced suite of cameras and neural network processing to provide Autopilot and associated functions . Model S and Model X continue to be equipped with radar.
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Certainly the fact remains that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (the colossal independent road safety agency) has been investigating Autopilot for some time, including the case under consideration involving 765,000 vehicles (all models of Tesla Model Y, X, S and 3 sold from 2014 to 2021. For the record, the first confirmed death with a self-driving car dates back to 2016. Joshua Brown, a 40-year-old man, was behind the wheel of a Tesla Model S in Florida. auto was unable to locate a truck in time that cut her way. On that occasion, Tesla had written in a statement that it was the first death, compared to more than 130 million miles traveled by vehicles with the driver automatic.
But there is another thing not to forget: the Teslas have a type of automation classified according to the international standard, level 3: it means that the car can handle driving, but the driver must be ready to intervene in case of danger. So you can’t sleep, read the paper, or even (it happened) have sex or sit on another seat. And to avoid this, nowadays “semi-autonomous” driving systems all have sensors on the steering wheel: if they notice that the driver has removed his hands from the steering ring, the alarm goes off with an unbearable siren and flashes on the dashboard. But the discussion on safety is open because then when you get to level 5, the one that requires complete automation, the driver will have no role in driving. Finally, here are the five levels of autonomous driving in detail
– 0: No automation, the driver controls all vehicle functions.
– 1: The car has some assistance functions, such as power steering or cruise control, but it is up to the driver to decide whether or not to use them.
– 2: The driver maintains control of the ride, but the system can adjust the steering and speed under the driver’s supervision.
– 3: The system controls all dynamic aspects of driving (steering, speed and environment) independently, without the driver having to intervene. However, the driver must be prepared to act in case of danger.
– 4: The vehicle is able to perform functions autonomously under all circumstances, so the driver can concentrate on secondary tasks without worrying about the car returning control.
– 5: Complete automation, the driver becomes an occupant of the vehicle and the system does not require any human intervention under any situation and circumstance.
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