M109Rider
Active Member
I have to say I have a lot of sympathy for the regulators. Musk is clearly seeing every establishment as inept and likes to play games whether the stock market, the regulators, the banks, everyone.. he seems to feel he's invincible and can do what he pleases, even his job title change this week seems to be taking the preverbial.
He's also enjoying the cult status of getting people to blame regulators for holding things back as if they would be much further forward if it wasn't for them. The UK owners group often suggest lobbying MPs about the limitations we've placed on autopilot, but when you look at them they're barely anything - summon across a carpark, tight bends at speed and needing to tap the indicator to acknowledge a lane change. If only they were the only things wrong with FSD at the moment.
There's a known issue that the greater the capability of the system, the more reliant and casual people may come when using it. I think it was Clarkson who said you could reduce accidents by removing seatbelts and sticking a big spike on the steering wheel (or something along those lines). The argument that you may have driven a thousand miles and not needed to do anything is great, but unless youre ready for that moment when you're needed you're at risk of a serious brown trouser moment 10 or so times a year. So how do you keep people attention on the system. A disclaimer isn't going to do that, the world has become immune to such things after somebody sued McDonalds because the coffee they bought contained a hot liquid which resulted in everything being covered with warning labels.
So you mix it all up and he's rolling out software to people that's not finished, may not even be a great drivers aid, those drivers will be the ones blamed if it goes wrong and they lose concentration through boredom or more likely feel checking their emails is worth the risk because the system is "reliable" and the nags are gone of you just hang a heavy arm on one side of the wheel, or a weight as some have done
I don't even get the "next version is camera only". It said to suggest its better and its all thats needed. Do we believe that a pair of fixed cameras in the centre of the windscreen is all that's needed to road the road ahead? I often need to lean my head to one side to get a better look past the car in front or reposition the car on the road to get a better view, whereas driving on the continent can be a nightmare for vision at times.
Give it time and the potential is there for it to offer massive benefits (so I get the vision) but over the last year, the "miles driven between accidents" ratio of active AP to passive/safety systems only AP has already been shrinking (was 1:2.4 down to 1:1.7) with the miles between accidents in Q4 2020 only marginally better than the stats from 2018 when they first published them.
I don't know what the answer is, others use cameras on drivers to watch eye movement, a regular confirmation when a message is displayed at random, both of which will be taken as an afront to many owners. There's a guy on another forum who just doesn't get it, he said the thing he hates about not using autopilot is that he need to stare at the road the whole time and prefers to look away and relax his eyes at times.. well right now, you still have to look with these systems engaged.
I see both sides to this, however Elon has, and continues to single handedly force change in an industry that refused to change at the detriment of the environment, and the consumers.
With any change like this, you have a multitude of opposition, and challenges.
My hope is that people work with him amd support him through this. That includes the consumers, and this is currently happening with the beta testers.
The problem will arise, when one of the Tesla haters on this forum, or an owner that belongs to an opposing industry gets hold of this Beta ...
They have a blind personal or financial interest in illustrating the very worst they can, because they don’t want Tesla to succeed.
This type of beta user is right around the corner.
I’m picky about the charities, or causes I support. I truly dig into the core of the cause or charity to ensure it’s legit.
I know Elon isn’t perfect, but I believe his core focus is totally different from most in his position.
It really saddens me to see that someone like this finally comes along, and so many folks try to take him down.
If he succeeds, many will see the benefits, and there will hopefully be more like him to follow. If he’s taken down, we all lose.