Knightshade
Well-Known Member
Not good, I guess the seat sensor may not be a thing?
CR Engineers Show a Tesla Will Drive With No One in the Driver's Seat
Amid speculation about the cause of a fatal crash in Texas, Consumer Reports put Tesla Autopilot to the test on our track without a driver behind the wheel. Our testing shows that a Tesla will drive with no one in the driver seat.www.consumerreports.org
They're a thing, they just don't do what some people think they do.
If you remove the driver weight at very low speed, the car throws itself into park as runaway protection. Folks often discover this feature in the drive-through when grabbing their wallet.
At higher speed it does not because it'd be highly dangerous to slam to a stop at speed because the driver lifted his butt to get something out of his pocket.
That said- the CR test makes no mention of the seatbelt.
The only way it could've worked as they described was the tester buckled it behind themselves with nobody "held" by it and left it that way when they moved out of the seat- because if you disconnect the seatbelt with AP engaged the car FREAKS THE HELL OUT beeping like mad and flashing the red TAKE OVER IMMEDIATELY on the main screen (I actually double-checked this 2 days ago on my own car and confirmed it).
Note, too, he couldn't pull this off from an original parked state into AP- he had to first get the car up to speed to turn on AP with a driver in the seat (and the belt buckled though they don't mention it). Then TACC speed control down to 0 with AP still on, THEN move out of the drivers seat and TACC speed control back up.
(and not on a residential street that would've been top speed restricted either).