The U.S. government’s road safety agency is again investigating Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” system, this time after getting reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says in documents that it opened the probe on Thursday with the company reporting four crashes after Teslas entered areas of low visibility, including sun glare, fog and airborne dust.

In addition to the pedestrian’s death, another crash involved an injury, the agency said.

Investigators will look into the ability of “Full Self-Driving” to “detect and respond appropriately to reduced roadway visibility conditions, and if so, the contributing circumstances for these crashes.”

  • Cethin
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    1 month ago

    The bad news is people hitting and killing pedestrians is so common you don’t hear about it. Fuck Musk and all that, but some number of people are always going to get killed. Even the FSD system that was as close to perfect as possible would still occasionally kill someone in large enough numbers, because there’s too many variables to account for. If the numbers are lower than a human driving, it’s a positive.

    We should be trying to move away from cars though ideally. Fuck electric cars, FSD cars, and all other cars. A bus, train, bike, or whatever else would be safer and better for the environment.

    • fne8w2ah@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Public transport is the way to go, just need to break the cycle of six decades of automobile addiction.

    • beanlink@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Lets install adaptive headlights to stop blinding people or allowing manufacturers to install chrome accents on the rear of a vehicle to again stop blinding people or even just maybe make a smaller truck that isn’t lifting ego and instead actual building materials.

      NHSTA:

    • Fuzzy_Red_Panda@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      Fuck Musk and all that, but some number of people are always going to get killed.

      That’s easy to say, but do you want to be one of the people who gets killed? I don’t.

      • Cethin
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        1 month ago

        Yeah, it’s that easy to say and yeah, I don’t want to be one of the people killed, driverless or not. Cars are fucking deadly. 20 pedestrians die every day to cars. If we can get that number down but have them die to FSD vehicles, that’s better. I don’t care who or what is driving.

        I’d rather not have cars everywhere, but if we do I want them to be as safe as possible (for everyone, not just the driver). If that includes FSD we should do it, even if the number of pedestrian deaths doesn’t hit zero (it never will) because the alternative is well above zero.

        • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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          1 month ago

          If I’m get killed by a driver on their phone, I want them to go to prison.

          If I’m killed by a Waymo or whatever, who goes to jail then?

          If we really must have self driving cars, limit their speed to 20mph in built up areas.

          • Cethin
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            1 month ago

            If you’re dead, why the fuck do you care who goes to jail? Shouldn’t we care more about people dying than revenge after?

            • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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              1 month ago

              I wouldn’t care. I hope my wife and family would.

              “He died for a good cause: Tesla’s stock price” is not what they want to hear.

              • Cethin
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                1 month ago

                I don’t like Tesla, but no one is dying to support FSD. They’re dying because multi-ton vehicles driving down the road next to fleshy meatbags sometimes ends up with them colliding. It doesn’t really matter who, if anyone, is behind the wheel. I’d rather them not come into contact. I’m in favor of everything that reduces that. I don’t really care if it ruins someone’s revenge fetish.

                • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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                  1 month ago

                  OK, we’ll make it simple then.

                  If you make a self driving car and it kills a pedestrian, then you give the family of the victim $50 million, and a seat on the board. Forever. Every decision you make from then on will be looking into the faces of the people whose lives you destroyed, while they turn down your bonuses.

                  Also, I don’t believe for one second that a self driving car is safer than somebody who should legally be behind the wheel of a car. If the sun is in your eyes, you slow down. If you can’t see the conditions ahead, you slow down.

          • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Number of people killed by Waymos self driving: 0? Number of people appear to think Waymo’s self driving has killed: hundreds?

            Tesla’s don’t have the tech to make it safe enough, but Waymo hasn’t been the ones at fault for all this fear mongering.