Paraphrasing:
“We only have the driver’s word they were in self driving mode…”
“This isn’t the first time a Tesla has driven onto train tracks…”
Since it isn’t the first time I’m gonna go ahead and believe the driver, thanks.
Furthermore, with the amount of telemetry that those cars have The company knows whether it was in self drive or not when it went onto the track. So the fact that they didn’t go public saying it wasn’t means that it was in self-drive mode and they want to save the PR face and liability.
I have a nephew that worked at Tesla as a software engineer for a couple years (he left about a year ago). I gave him the VIN to my Tesla and the amount of data he shared with me was crazy. He warned me that one of my brake lights was regularly logging errors. If their telemetry includes that sort of information then clearly they are logging a LOT of data.
Modern cars (in the US) are required to have an OBD-II Port for On-Board Diagnostics. I always assumed most cars these days were just sending some or all of the real-time OBD data to the manufacturer. GM definitely has been.
Dude, in today’s world we’re lucky if they stop at the manufacturer. I know of a few insurances that have contracts through major dealers and they just automatically get the data that’s registered via the cars systems. That way they can make better decisions regarding people’s car insurance.
Nowadays it’s a red flag if you join a car insurance and they don’t offer to give you a discount if you put something like drive pass on which logs you’re driving because it probably means that your car is already getting that data to them.
We just got back from a road trip in a friend’s '25 Tundra and it popped up a TPMS warning for a faulty sensor then minutes later he got a text from the dealership telling him about it and to bring it in for service.
Since the story has 3 separate incidents where “the driver let their Tesla turn left onto some railroad tracks” I’m going to posit:
Teslas on self-drive mode will turn left onto railroad tracks unless forcibly restrained.
Prove me wrong, Tesla
Map data obtained and converted from other formats often ends up accidentally condensing labeling categories. One result is train tracks being categorized as generic roads instead of retaining their specific sub-heading. Another, unrelated to this, but common for people that play geo games is when forests and water areas end up being tagged as the wrong specific types.
Aha. But that sounds correctable… So not having any people assigned to checking on railroads and making sure the system recognizes them as railroads would be due to miserliness on the part of Tesla then… And might also say something about why some Teslas have been known to drive into bodies of water (or children, but that’s probably a different instance of miserliness)
I mean …… Tesla self driving allegedly did this three times in three years but we don’t yet have public data to verify that’s what happened nor do we in any way compare it to what human drivers do.
Although one of the many ways I think I’m an above average driver (just like everyone else) is that people do a lot of stupid things at railroad crossings and I never would
I’m pretty sure Tesla self-drive does a lot of stupid things you never would, too. That’s why they want you at the wheel, paying attention and ready to correct it in an instant! (Which defeats the whole benefit of self-drive mode imho, but whatever)
The fact that they can avoid all responsibilities and blame you for their errors is of course the other reason.
The ~2010 runaway Toyota hysteria was ultimately blamed on mechanical problems less than half the time. Floor mats jamming the pedal, drivers mixing up gas/brake pedals in panic, downright lying to evade a speeding ticket, etc were cause for many cases.
Should a manufacturer be held accountable for legitimate flaws? Absolutely. Should drivers be absolved without the facts just because we don’t like a company? I don’t think so. But if Tesla has proof fsd was off, we’ll know in a minute when they invade the driver’s privacy and release driving events
Tesla has constantly lied about their FSD for a decade. We don’t trust them because they are untrustworthy, not because we don’t like them.
They promote it in ways that people sometimes trust it too much …. But in particular when releasing telemetry I do t remember tha ever being an accusation
It’s more about when they don’t release it/only selectively say things that make them look good and staying silent when they look bad.
Maybe I’m missing something, but isn’t it trivial to take it out of their bullshit dangerous “FSD” mode and take control? How does a car go approximately 40-50 feet down the tracks without the driver noticing and stopping it?
On some railroad crossings you might only need to go off the crossing to get stuck in the tracks and unable to back out. Trying to get out is another 30-40 feet.
Being caught off guard when the car isn’t supposed to do that is how to get stuck in the first place. Yeah, terrible driver trusting shit technology.
Yes.
You hit the brake.
It simply saw a superior technology and decided to attack.
That … tracks
How the fuck do you let any level 2 system go 40 to 50 fucking feet down the railroad tracks.
We’re they asleep?
Also, the robotaxi has been live for all of a day and there’s already footage of it driving on the wrong side of the road: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s-h0YXtF0c&t=420s
The thing that strikes me about both this story and the thing you posted is that the people in the Tesla seem to be like “this is fine” as the car does some pretty terrible stuff.
In that one, Tesla failing to honor a forced left turn instead opting to go straight into oncoming lanes and waggle about causing things to honk at them, the human just sits there without trying to intervene. Meanwhile they describe it as “navigation issue/hesitation” which really understates what happened there.
The train one didn’t come with video, but I can’t imagine just letting my car turn itself onto tracks and going 40 feet without thinking.
My Ford even thinks about going too close to another lane and I’m intervening even if it was really going to be no big deal. I can’t imagine this level of “oh well”.
Tesla drivers/riders are really nuts…
If only there was a way to avoid the place where trains drive.
I checked first. They didn’t make a turn into a crossing. It turned onto the tracks. Jalopnik says there’s no official statement that it was actually driving under FSD(elusion) but if it was strictly under human driving (or FSD turned itself off after driving off) I guarantee Tesla will invade privacy and slander the driver by next day for the sake of court of public opinion
They didn’t make a turn into a crossing. It turned onto the tracks.
Just to be clear for others, it did so at a crossing. That’s still obviously not what it should have done and it’s no defence of the self-driving feature, but I read your comment as suggesting it had found its way onto train tracks by some other route.
Thanks. I could have clarified better myself. I meant “didn’t turn from a rail-parallel road onto a crossing to be met by a train it couldn’t reasonably detect due to bad road design”
Damn. I hope the train is ok
Tesla’s self-driving is pretty shite but they seem to have a particular problem with railway crossings, as also pointed out in the article. Of all of the obstacles for the self-driving system to fail to detect, the several thousand tons of moving steel is probably one of the worst outcomes.
Maybe if they use LIDAR like they should have instead of just cameras it wouldn’t be such an issue, but they’re determined to minimize costs and maximize profits at the expense of consumers as are all publicly traded companies
That, and little kids… and motorcycles… and school busses
Tesla’s have a problem with the lefts.
Tesla’s new automatic suicide feature
And who is going to willingly get into a Tesla Taxi?!?!
You still don’t have to get in for one to hit you. I ride a motorcycle and I’m always sketched out when there’s a Tesla behind me
Very true.
At this point, if anybody buys one of these vehicles from Tesla, they absolutely deserve what they get. It is absurd.
Can’t wait to hop in a Robotaxi! /s
What’s that? They’ll have human drivers in them? Still maybe no.
Pretty sure this one also had a driver in it.
A family in Pennsylvania
It’s stupider than I thought reading the headline. That car started driving down the fing tracks
How could the left do this /s
Next up: “Train is a communistic tool to restrict vehicular freedom. Banish trains! More highways!”
Just one more lane, bro!
