Elon Musk has complained that he does not receive enough credit for the number of crashes his Tesla Autopilot technology likely saves, compared to accidents which have seen people 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed.
Musk, who was named Time Magazine’s 2021 Person of the Year, spoke out about the intense scrutiny his company faces, particularly over accidents seemingly caused by a reliance the company’s self-driving technology.
‘There’s something somebody said to me at the beginning of when we were pursuing autonomy: even if you save 90% of the lives, the 10% that you don’t save are going to sue you,’ Musk explained to Time.
‘I think it’s one of those things where you’re not going to get rewarded necessarily for the lives that you save, but you will definitely be blamed for lives that you don’t save,’ he added
Musk is the world’s richest person and his company Tesla is worth about $1 trillion, making it more valuable than automakers Ford Motor and General Motors combined. Over the last few weeks, Musk has sold nearly $13 billion worth of Tesla shares.
Tesla, the global EV leader, has pushed many young consumers and legacy automakers to shift focus to electric vehicles.
Tesla’s Autopilot technology has come under scrutiny having been linked to 12 accidents since 2018, with those 12 smashes now being probed by the NHTSA.
Jenna Monet’s Tesla slammed into the back of a parked fire engine on Interstate 70 in 2019
Jenna Monet, 23, died when her Tesla crashed into a parked fire truck in the passing lane
It has led to the families of drivers involved in fatal crashed suing the company while others take issue with Tesla allegedly ‘misrepresenting and using deceptive marketing for its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving services.’
Almost all smashes have involved parked emergency vehicles, leading to speculation that flashing lights can confuse the Autopilot system’s sensors.
Musk insists that when it comes to self-driving technology, he has never misled or risked Tesla owner’s safety.
‘I don’t think there’s a CEO on this planet that cares more about safety than me,’ Musk told the Financial Times.
Tesla’s Autopilot can make driving safer as it monitors the vehicle’s surroundings, keeping the car in the center of the lane and safely away from other cars.
The company stresses that it does not allow the car to drive on its own and in order to avoid accidents still needs drivers to remain attentive, with their hands on the wheel.
The Tesla car was on autopilot at the time, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed
The 11 crashes have occurred when Teslas on Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control hit vehicles at scenes where first responders have used flashing lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board or cones warning of hazards.
That incident saw Tesla using Autopilot strike a firetruck that was parked partially in the travel lanes with its lights flashing. Crews were handling another crash at the time.
Since then, NHTSA said there were crashes in Laguna Beach, California; Norwalk, Connecticut; Cloverdale, Indiana; West Bridgewater, Massachusetts; Cochise County, Arizona; Charlotte, North Carolina, Montgomery County, Texas; Lansing, Michigan; and Miami, Florida.
Tesla insists that to engage autopilot, a person must have their hands on the steering wheel at all times, ready to take over if the automated systems fail.
If no weight is detected on the steering wheel, the car sends the driver an alert reminding them of the rule, but it doesn’t necessarily bring it to a stop – at least not right away.
In some videos posted by car enthusiasts, it takes two minutes for it to even detect that no one has their hands on the wheel.
During the second quarter of 2021, one crash was recorded for every 4.41 million miles driven on Autopilot compared with 1.2 million miles without.
Earlier this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced it was investigating 765,000 Tesla vehicles that have been produced since 2014 after it was found that Full Self-Driving software had caused 12 accidents involving first-responder vehicles, 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ing one and injuring 17 others.
The deadly accident happened in Interstate 70 in Cloverdale, Indiana, in December 2019 and saw passenger Jenna Monet, 23, 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed after the Tesla being driven by her husband Derrick slammed into the back of a parked fire engine.
Tesla will stop driving on autopilot if it cannot detect a person’s hands on the wheel. To get around it, people have been doing this – putting an item on the wheel or lodging it there – to trick it
Other drivers balanced water bottles on the steering wheel to make the car think they were still engaged with it
