The UK police, the YouTuber and FSD...

[Tony Hoyle]

The police didn’t say using autopilot was against the law, they said not being in proper control of the car was.

First paragraph of the article.

"A Tesla Model 3 owner in the United Kingdom has been warned by police to not test the Autopilot capability of his electric car again because the feature is still illegal in the region."

Also..

"Wiltshire Police are now indicating that Tesla Driver was breaking the law and have formally warned him to not attempt to display the feature’s capabilities again.

“The UK’s current legislation does not allow for their [self-driving cars] use on public roads,” a spokesperson for the Wiltshire Police Department told the BBC"

And..

"The issue with Tesla Driver’s video is that the car was ultimately controlling the movements, and not the operator himself. This is a breach of laws, which require the person behind the wheel to be dictating the vehicle’s moves while it is in operation."

The police are 100% wrong, but they definitely said AP was illegal.

 

[Durzel]

The police didn’t say using autopilot was against the law, they said not being in proper control of the car was.

Problem is, clickbait articles and clickbait YouTubers have a vested interest with going with the “Police say AP is ILLEGAL! Tesla BAN IMMINENT????!” rather than saying that the Police saw a video of someone driving a car with their hands off the wheel and observed that it is against the Law.

Doesn’t suck in as many viewers though, the actual honest interpretation of what was said.

This is why, personally, I have a very low tolerance for people who make a living out of this sort of hyperbole. It’s not genuine and it’s not helpful.

 

[Durzel]

First paragraph of the article.

"A Tesla Model 3 owner in the United Kingdom has been warned by police to not test the Autopilot capability of his electric car again because the feature is still illegal in the region."

Also..

"Wiltshire Police are now indicating that Tesla Driver was breaking the law and have formally warned him to not attempt to display the feature’s capabilities again.

“The UK’s current legislation does not allow for their [self-driving cars] use on public roads,” a spokesperson for the Wiltshire Police Department told the BBC"

And..

"The issue with Tesla Driver’s video is that the car was ultimately controlling the movements, and not the operator himself. This is a breach of laws, which require the person behind the wheel to be dictating the vehicle’s moves while it is in operation."

The police are 100% wrong, but they definitely said AP was illegal.

Where is their actual statement though? The stuff you’ve quoted is what Teslarati interpreted the statement to say.

It is possible that Wiltshire Police said AP was illegal (they’re wrong, it isn’t), the Police aren’t infallible, but I find it more likely that they said that - based on that video - the driver wasn’t in proper control, which is an actual offence.

 

[Lucanesque]

First paragraph of the article.

"A Tesla Model 3 owner in the United Kingdom has been warned by police to not test the Autopilot capability of his electric car again because the feature is still illegal in the region."

Also..

"Wiltshire Police are now indicating that Tesla Driver was breaking the law and have formally warned him to not attempt to display the feature’s capabilities again.

“The UK’s current legislation does not allow for their [self-driving cars] use on public roads,” a spokesperson for the Wiltshire Police Department told the BBC"

And..

"The issue with Tesla Driver’s video is that the car was ultimately controlling the movements, and not the operator himself. This is a breach of laws, which require the person behind the wheel to be dictating the vehicle’s moves while it is in operation."

The police are 100% wrong, but they definitely said AP was illegal.

The police didn’t say autopilot was illegal, the author of the article wrote those words in the first paragraph.

The police quote said he was breaking the law because he wasn’t in proper control of the car. Autopilot: not illegal, taking your hands off the wheel whilst letting the car decide movements: illegal.

 

[Neilio]

Problem is, clickbait articles and clickbait YouTubers have a vested interest with going with the “Police say AP is ILLEGAL! Tesla BAN IMMINENT????!” rather than saying that the Police saw a video of someone driving a car with their hands off the wheel and observed that it is against the Law.

Doesn’t suck in as many viewers though, the actual honest interpretation of what was said.

This is why, personally, I have a very low tolerance for people who make a living out of this sort of hyperbole. It’s not genuine and it’s not helpful.

So you're actually upset with the writers of the article, rather than the guy doing the videos?

 

[Glan gluaisne]

The problem we have is that pretty much everything that is published, via any form of media, has a vested interest in attracting people to read or view it. The fact that probably 90% of the stuff that's published is inaccurate, misleading, or just completely untrue doesn't matter to those publishing it, as revenue is based solely on popularity, generally publishers do not earn more revenue by being accurate.

People are inherently gullible, too, and actually want to see stuff that's far fetched. It's the reason that newspapers like the Sunday Sport sold so well, the fact that it was impossible for there to be a Lancaster bomber on the surface of the moon was clearly barking mad, yet that headline earned the Sunday Sport a great deal of money. The advent of social media, and the ability of anyone to become a media publisher, has just opened up the floodgates for more people to make money by misrepresenting stuff, misleading people and just being downright dishonest.

As a society, we've encouraged this domination of the media in all forms by hucksters, by effectively paying them to carry on doing this, via advertising revenue. A healthy amount of scepticism is needed when reading or viewing anything now, given that so much published content is just a way of generating ad revenue, with no regard for any consequences.

 

[Durzel]

So you're actually upset with the writers of the article, rather than the guy doing the videos?

Both. I take issue with the inaccuracy and sensationalism of both the article and the YouTube guy. Both, I feel, are disingenuous as to their viewpoints, driven more by revenue than a desire for accuracy or objectivity.

 

[Neilio]

Both. I take issue with the inaccuracy and sensationalism of both the article and the YouTube guy. Both, I feel, are disingenuous as to their viewpoints, driven more by revenue than a desire for accuracy or objectivity.

I guess we’ll have to disagree on Tesla drivers motives. I personally think he’s entitled to promote a product he is making, as is everyone

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Motivation is easy to work out, the guy is trying to gain revenue, both from ads and from referrals. Nothing wrong with that, most people have to earn a crust. The question is really whether it is ethically and morally acceptable to be deceptive in order to earn money.

We seem to have a funny set of values when it comes to deception. If someone deceives another person with a scam email or phone call, then we universally condemn them for trying to earn money in this way. However, if someone deceives people via other forms of media, be it printed, electronically published or video, then it seems some tend to say good luck to them.

My view is that deception is the same no matter how it's dressed up, it's morally and ethically wrong to deceive people in order to make money from them, directly or indirectly.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

When his hands are off the wheel he's not in full control. He can regain control by holding the wheel, but until he does, he isn't. Tesla say you should hold the wheel too. I imagine thats what the Police have the issue with.

Tesla have publically stated both that AP is not designed for certain road types AND that AP is being completely rewritten ahead of any greater capability, so even the premise "its for the greater good" as its learning is bogus as the car won't be learning anything

The guys a clickbait merchant wanting views and advertising revenue. If you think he's cool then carry on, but its to me he might as well be a drunk driver posting videos of himself getting home from the pub and celebrating the times when he makes it without killing anyone. Its amounts to the same thing, being an idiot.