Comment on Tesla loses Autopilot wrongful death case in $329 million verdict
MysteriousSophon21@lemmy.world 3 weeks agoJust a small correction - traditional cruise control in cars only maintains speed, wheras autopilot in planes does maintain speed, altitude and heading, which is exactly why Tesla calling their system “Autopilot” is such dangerous marketing that creates unrealistic expectations for drivers.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m not sure what you’re correcting. The autopilot feature has adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assist, and auto steering.
Adaptive cruise control will brake to maintain a distance with the vehicle in front of it but maintain the set speed otherwise, lane keeping assist will keep the vehicle in it’s lane/prevent it from drifting from its lane, and combined with auto steering will keep it centered in the lane.
I specifically explained that a planes auto pilot does those things (maintain spee, altitude, and heading), and that people don’t know that this is all it does. It doesn’t by itself avoid obstacles or account for wether etc. It’d fly right into another plane if it was occupying that airspace. It won’t react to weather events like windsheer (which could cause the plane to lose altitude extremely quickly), or a hurricane. If there’s an engine problem and an engine loses power? It won’t attempt to restart. It doesn’t brake. It can’t bland a plane.
But Musk made some claims that Teslas autopilot would drive the vehicle for you without human interference. And people assume that autopilot (in the pop culture sense) does a lot more than it actually does. This is what I’m trying to point out.