Let’s just call it driver assist now since this is no longer remotely close to autopilot.
This is a perfect encapsulation of the cognitive dissonance that afflicts the credulous Tesla fan mindset: Quick to attack any driver who uses the system the way Tesla (in every forum except its own backside-covering disclaimers) aggressively wink-wink suggests the system can and should be used -- i.e., as a hands-free 'Autopilot' -- because those drivers are too 'stupid,' 'ignorant,' etc. to understand that it is not hands-free but a mere driver assist system . . . yet equally quick to complain when Tesla takes away the ability of Tesla enthusiasts (who style themselves as more capable than those stupid 'average' drivers) to misuse the system as a hands-free autopilot, i.e., as a toy that puts the lives of other drivers on the road at risk.
If y'all don't see the wooden nickel Tesla is putting in front of you here, I've got a bridge to sell you. It's a for-profit business, not a crusade. "Elon" doesn't see you as super-useful beta testers or part of some leading-edge vanguard. He sees you as tools to be led around by the nose and repeat his talking points in service of his current goal, which is to create the impression out there among tech journalists (the most credulous of all journalists) and the general public (most of whom aren't self-driving tech enthusiasts and reasonably enough aren't following this all that closely) that Tesla has spooky amazing self-driving technology that it doesn't actually have, while counting on legal disclaimers that contradict what Tesla says/does elsewhere to protect him from the consequences of misleading the public, and gullible fans to be an army of advocates and buy his claptrap about how much smarter, braver, forward-thinking, tough-minded, and savvy than that herd of cows out there who aren't part of the elite cohort of Those Who Recognize Elon Knows Best. And he's been very successful so far. (He would, in all seriousness, be a highly effective cult leader, though Tesla pays better I'm sure!)
There's a reason other automakers and regulators are aghast at the way Tesla has approached Autopilot from the start, and it's not because they are backwards-thinking grey-flannel-suit-wearing narrow-minded "boring questions aren't cool" bureaucrats who can't think outside the box, or because Tesla's mere existence threatens the mere existence of other automakers. That's more Musk-generated propaganda designed to flatter his customers and admirers into thinking that Smart People Always Believe Elon So If I'm With Elon Then I'm Smart And The Doubters Are Dumb/Backwards/Whatever (TM). The reason regulators and other automakers are aghast is because you don't do it this way, and you don't do it this way for good reason. Cars are high-stakes. Somewhere approaching 100 people will die in or because of a car in the U.S. before today is out. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000 will be injured today. (Oh, and if you buy Musk's appallingly cynical fuzzy math about how it's proven that Tesla is already making the roads safer I've got an even bigger and longer bridge to sell you.) You don't introduce driver-assist technology until you know it really, really works and you don't misrepresent, fudge, wink-wink, or do anything but talk straight to the public about what your driver-assist technology can and cannot do. Doing your best to make the public think your tech is worthy of the name "Autopilot" while relying on contradictory disclaimers to protect yourself is dangerous and just plain huckster-sleazy.
Autopilot crashes aren't happening because people are too "stupid" and "ignorant" to handle the technology; they're happening because people are people, and it is 100% foreseeable that if you give drivers hands-free technology that kind of works some-to-much of the time and your public-facing message (to include videos of your CEO using it) encourages them to go ahead and use it hands-free, then they are gonna use it hands-free, and if they're using it hands-free they will eventually become distracted, not because they are "stupid" but because *anyone* (even an elite Tesla enthusiast) would eventually become distracted in that circumstance, because (say it with me now) They. Are. Human. And once they become distracted they are now in a driverless car lacking driverless car technology and sooner or later they're gonna crash into something or someone.
It'd be nice to see some of the anger currently directed at those benighted souls who took away all the fun -- i.e., the general public, those stuffy fearful regulators -- redirected where it belongs, at Elon Musk and Tesla for playing us all for suckers and trying to sell us a self-driving bridge.
Nikola Tesla himself was deft at convincing the public (even now all these decades after his death) that he had spooky amazing technology that he didn't actually have (force fields and such). I wonder sometimes if Musk chose the name Tesla as a little inside joke for himself (Barnum must've been his runner-up), to remind himself daily how he's leading us around by the nose with don't-look-too-closely-at-the-details promises (self-driving technology, vactrain technology as currently practical and economically viable on a large scale) that are forever almost-fulfilled.
