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Tesla cars can drive with no one in the driver’s seat, Consumer Reports says

JacksinPA

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Tesla cars can drive with no one in the driver’s seat, Consumer Reports says

Consumer Reports engineers were able to operate a Tesla vehicle without anyone in the driver’s seat, and the system failed to send out a warning or indicate that the driver’s seat …
nypost.com

Consumer Reports engineers were able to operate a Tesla vehicle without anyone in the driver’s seat, and the system failed to send out a warning or indicate that the driver’s seat was empty, the magazine said Thursday.

The engineers tested Tesla Model Y this week as investigators probe an accident where two men died after their Tesla Model S, which was believed to be operating without anyone in the driver’s seat, crashed into a tree on Saturday night north of Houston.

Over several trips across half-mile closed test track, the Model Y automatically steered along painted lane lines, the magazine said.
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My concern is drivers will become either bored or complacent with this technology, with inevitable results. No machine is perfect, let alone computers that drive these vehicles. (Every computer I have ever owned has failed, with a couple of exceptions.
 
I am deeply hopeful that this tech is quickly developed to the point of trustworthiness. The ability to relax on long car trips would be fantastic.
 
You can put a brick on the gas pedal and drive a car off a cliff.
 
cpwill said:
I am deeply hopeful that this tech is quickly developed to the point of trustworthiness. The ability to relax on long car trips would be fantastic.
Click to expand...

For one thing, yes. But it would change everything. Suddenly people who aren't mobile, would be mobile, think young people and older people. That 8 hour drive up I-75 from South FL to Atlanta? Why would I EVER fly that if all I have to do is go to bed in the car and wake up in Atlanta?

While we're currently doing remote this can also make longer commutes more comfortable and in some cases, possible.

Will Americans even choose to own cars or will it be driverless Uber/Lyft? Right now many American families have two depreciating assets sitting in their driveway taking up space, consuming fuel, costing them money for insurance, etc. Maybe they can get away with owning only one. Hard to tell.

There was a study though that MIT did in Manhattan about how many cars would be needed if the cars were utilized to their maximum utility and their answer was something along the lines of there would be something like 90% less cars.

And of course they have to get it right, but if they get it right, the number of deaths on the roads plummets.
 
Look how Uber has change everything. Soon we will summon an autonomous car to take us where ever. Private cars in the city won't be cost affective.
 

I get the impression Consumer Reports is upset that no one is willing to idiot proof the world.
Tesla says over and over again that their cars are not AUTONOMOUS and to NOT TREAT them as if they are.

I know for a fact that I can put a pair of 250 shot nitrous bottles on my wife's minivan and get 800+ horses out of the engine. But Chrysler designed that engine for around 450 HP tops, 300 as it sits in her minivan.
But Chrysler can't stop me from doing something stupid to their engine and Tesla can't stop idiots from pretending that they can sit in the back seat of their car while it goes down the road.
 
when i was a teenager, Car and Driver was predicting that computer systems would eventually control traffic flow and that cars would drive themselves. i was like "**** that." after commuting for decades, though, i'm more like "just ****ing do it, and secure that system like it was your last fifty bucks."
 
I suggest you think over the value of Consumer's Report. They have no more standing than Fox or CNC who as we both know trade in misinformation-for-profit. They purposely lied about the Suzuki Samari with as much skill as Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow and they have a woody for Tesla now.
 
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