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Phone Distracted Driver on Autopilot Slams into Firetruck

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Thank fully this time, this article doesn’t claim it was auto pilot... yet
 
Why people continue to use autopilot on a red light it's not designed for that please all peoples take a look on your manual before it's to late for all of us.

AP2 release notes were for local roads. How many local roads don't have red lights?

Tesla's inconsistent messaging creates ambiguity.

Bottom line is people shouldn't use AP unless they are paying attention. End of story.
 
I believe it is unlikely that the driver of the Tesla was using TACC or AP, otherwise the Tesla would have sensed the stationary fire truck and stopped appropriately. There have been incidents, including during Tesla test drives, in which the driver inadvertently turns off TACC by lightly touching the brake pedal but assumes that TACC is still engaged. If this happens while approaching a stopped vehicle, a rear-end collision can result if the driver is not paying close attention. This scenario would be more likely to occur if the Follow Distance setting was set to minimum.
 
The traffic light makes no difference in this instance. If TACC or AP was in use, it would have slowed and stopped behind the fire truck.

I don't think this is correct.

TACC has this warning:

Warning:
Traffic-Aware
Cruise Control
cannot detect all objects and may not
brake/decelerate for stationary vehicles
or objects, especially in situations when
you are driving over 50 mph (80 km/h)
and in situations where a vehicle you are
following moves out of your driving path
and a stationary vehicle or object is in
front of you.

Collision Avoidance Assist has this warning:

If driving 29 mph (46 km/h) or faster, the
brakes are released after Automatic
Emergency Braking has reduced your driving
speed by 25 mph (40 km/h). For example, if
Automatic Emergency Braking applies braking
when driving 56 mph (90 km/h), it releases
the brakes when your speed has been reduced
to 31 mph (50 km/h).

Neither of these are certain to bring a car traveling over 50mph to a stop behind a stationary fire truck.
 
I don't think this is correct.

TACC has this warning:

Warning:
Traffic-Aware
Cruise Control
cannot detect all objects and may not
brake/decelerate for stationary vehicles
or objects, especially in situations when
you are driving over 50 mph (80 km/h)
and in situations where a vehicle you are
following moves out of your driving path
and a stationary vehicle or object is in
front of you.

Collision Avoidance Assist has this warning:

If driving 29 mph (46 km/h) or faster, the
brakes are released after Automatic
Emergency Braking has reduced your driving
speed by 25 mph (40 km/h). For example, if
Automatic Emergency Braking applies braking
when driving 56 mph (90 km/h), it releases
the brakes when your speed has been reduced
to 31 mph (50 km/h).

Neither of these are certain to bring a car traveling over 50mph to a stop behind a stationary fire truck.

I've driven numerous times in stop-and-go highway traffic using TACC with AP1, and I've never encountered a situation in which a stopped vehicle in my lane was not recognized. I do keep the Follow Distance set to 3 or 4 car lengths, never less than that. If anything, TACC seems overly cautious with vehicles ahead of me, even those only partially in my lane.

That is an interesting note about Collision Avoidance Assist. I don't recall seeing that explanation when I received my Model S two years ago. I gather that the intention is to prevent complete loss of steering control prior to impact.
 
The point about 'stop & go' traffic is that the car gets to see the one in front 'go' before it 'stops', this is very different from coming upon a stopped vehicle that it never saw 'go'.

When it is tracking a moving object that stops moving it is far more likely to handle it correctly than when it encounters an object that it has not seen moving...

All of this still comes back to the fundamental point that we should never depend on the car to stop on its own...
 
I've driven numerous times in stop-and-go highway traffic using TACC with AP1, and I've never encountered a situation in which a stopped vehicle in my lane was not recognized. I do keep the Follow Distance set to 3 or 4 car lengths, never less than that. If anything, TACC seems overly cautious with vehicles ahead of me, even those only partially in my lane.

That is an interesting note about Collision Avoidance Assist. I don't recall seeing that explanation when I received my Model S two years ago. I gather that the intention is to prevent complete loss of steering control prior to impact.
I've definitely had a couple of instances where AP1 did not recognize a fully stopped vehicle in front of me. It's only ever happened when they were already stopped before I ever saw them. It's been no problem though because I always pay attention whether or not I'm using autopilot. So I stop the car myself, no big deal.
 
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I believe it is unlikely that the driver of the Tesla was using TACC or AP, otherwise the Tesla would have sensed the stationary fire truck and stopped appropriately.
I think it is very likely AP was on. If he was going 50+mph and came up on the fire truck stopped at a red light, it is common for AP to not recognize it and act.

But the driver could have had it off and still been texting.