Tesla's autopilot - "unsupervised wannabe" - Volvo says...

[KZKZ]

[/MEDIA]

If the Tesla braked at the last second, its bumper would have slid under the Focus's bumper and the Tesla would have had much worse damage while the Ford would have suffered little.

I had an accident like that once. Someone two cars ahead of me stopped for no reason on the freeway and I was braking so hard the nose of my car slid under the bumper of the car in front of me. By the time I made contact, I was only going about 5-10 mph. The grill on my car was destroyed and the hood got a bad crease, but the car in front had no damage at all.

A Tesla is already a fairly low car, if it nosed over at the last second as the driver finally hit the brakes, he could have easily slid under the Focus's bumper.

I understand the crash scenario you described, but looking closely at this photo, it doesn't look like the Tesla went under the Focus. It looks like it hit the back bumper directly. The Model-s should have standard height bumpers and hopefully an anti-dive suspension.

Its still amazing to me that a little Focus would come out so much better than the Tesla, which must weigh twice as much.

 

[trils0n]

Nearly every rear end collision between any two fairly modern cars looks like that, but you probably know that. Front crush zones crush before rear ones.

I was rear ended by a BMW a few months ago. My Model S had a scratch / crease on the bumper, but the BMW's front was destroyed, and did its job protecting the occupant.

 

[EarlyAdopter]

I understand the crash scenario you described, but looking closely at this photo, it doesn't look like the Tesla went under the Focus. It looks like it hit the back bumper directly. The Model-s should have standard height bumpers and hopefully an anti-dive suspension.

Its still amazing to me that a little Focus would come out so much better than the Tesla, which must weigh twice as much.

Works the same the other way around, when the Tesla is the one that gets rear ended.

What happens when a Tesla Model S gets rear ended?

The car that did the rear ending:

and the Tesla:

Can hardly even tell it was hit, vs the other car which was probably totaled.

 

[Pale Hearse]

But, it illustrates a huge problem with the claims that a manufacture makes versus the reality.

Reality is a funny thing.. It's not up to perception.
The fleet is collecting data now about how much safer it is than a vehicle piloted by a human. Yes, those are miles logged largely under the conditions of the system's limitations.. And the drivers are largely taking those limitations into account when they do switch on. The reality, however, is that one is safer both being in the car and being next to one being driven on autopilot than one is being next to a car that is not equipped and using autopilot.

That's just fact that is supported by real world miles driven.