I learned today from scanning headlines that a self-driving Tesla had killed a pedestrian, e.g., “Tesla in ‘self-driving’ mode kills pedestrian”. In other words, Elon Musk has not only killed our democracy, but his machines are gradually killing us as individuals.
Here’s another example:
I had assumed from the headlines that the Tesla had been blinded by some glare and had run over an unfortunate U.S. resident in a city crosswalk. Some hours later, I clicked on one of the articles and learned that the crosswalk was on a six-lane portion of Interstate 80 Vallejo, California. The “pedestrian” was attempting to cross the Interstate at about 2:30 am. He stepped from the shoulder directly into the path of the car.
(Update: It seems as though the “pedestrian” may not have been killed by Evil Elon at all. SFGate reports “Though the dash camera footage reviewed by officers showed the Tesla braking as it steered to the left, the right side of the car struck the pedestrian, CHP said. After the Tesla crash, the pedestrian was lying in the traffic lanes and was hit by another driver, CHP said. The driver of the second car did not stop and has not been identified by authorities. The pedestrian had fatal injuries, and the Tesla driver, a 26-year-old man from San Francisco, remained at the scene, CHP said.” So the crossing-attempt victim was whacked by the side of a slowing-down Tesla and then run over by a full-speed human. Presumably it was the second encounter with a steel behemoth that resulted in death.)
None of the heroic journalists behind these articles mentioned that it is illegal for anyone to walk on or across Interstate 80 in Vallejo, California. CA Veh Code § 21960 has one exception to this rule, but it does not permit crossing:
… Notwithstanding any order, ordinance, or resolution to the contrary, the driver or passengers of a disabled vehicle stopped on a freeway or expressway may walk to the nearest exit, in either direction, on that side of the freeway or expressway upon which the vehicle is disabled, from which telephone or motor vehicle repair services are available.
Only loosely related… my dream of a “pedestrian”-killing Tesla Y L seems to be receding ever deeper into 2027. The range-squanderingAWD version is the only one available (“Launch Edition”) and it wouldn’t be delivered until, probably, March 2027:
What the hell is a 71 year old guy doing at 2:30AM walking across a six-lane highway?
The hookers and the crack don’t deliver themselves at 2:30.
Fentanyl zombies and recent Third World arrivals seem to believe they can magically cross any street, anywhere, at any time.
I’m still a bit surprised the Tesla couldn’t avoid the errant human since it seems FSD handles animals crossing roads quite well.
Was the lighting too poor for the car? As we know, Tesla do not Lidar.
Also, the speed was fairly high (kudos for reporting in km/h). OK, 70 mph is perhaps not out of the ordinary.
Tom, I totally agree! If this is true (and I haven’t seen all the details), it speaks very poorly to Tesla’s FSD capabilities.
Phil, what if anything are we missing here??
What might you be missing? A human driver on an Interstate isn’t likely to avoid someone who runs out in front of the vehicle from the shoulder (not “a pedestrian”). If the human can’t do it, why would we expect the Tesla to handle this bizarre situation?
@Phil If you were to write, what would be the headline?
Anon: First, I might not write the story at all. It’s “dog bites man” when someone runs into an Interstate highway from the shoulder and gets hit, not “man bites dog.” If I did write it, I guess I’d say “Tesla FSD fails to avoid a man who ran in front of the car on an Interstate highway”. A person who tries to dart across a 6-lane limited-access highway is not “a pedestrian”.
It’s the rise of the machines. Skynet is frickin’ activated. Game over, man.
The AI generated art which replaced news photographers is worse than the AI powered self driving cars.
lion: It is odd that Tech Insider doesn’t have a note anywhere saying “AI-generated”.
Bad situation, but under these circumstances the driver would probably never receive a citation, so it is hard to say the Tesla was at fault. Pedestrians are simply not allowed there because 70mph traffic at night is always going to have a hard time spotting someone walking down the middle of the road. Stupid is as stupid does.
Re: Tesla delivery. In the earning call they said they have the longest order backlog in the last 4 years due to the demand for FSD.
Just place your order and wait, it will probably be even worse.
SK: You think they’re just going to stuck at “Launch Edition” forever? I need that second motor like a multi-billionaire needs to marry a plastic surgery survivor who is the age of the average grandmother (oh, wait). Losing 1/7th of the practical range (assume that the car is driven from 80% down to 20%) is painful. I’m getting range anxiety right now just thinking about it.
SK: What’s your best guess as to the date when the legacy car companies catch up to where Tesla is right now for self-driving? Gemini says that the answer is “never’. They want to have unsupervised highway driving by 2028, but not even try for city driving (so mid-2030s to get unsupervised city driving from them). Gemini estimated that about half of driving time nationwide is spent on roads that the legacy car companies aren’t trying to address. Because limited-access highways are already so much safer than local roads per mile traveled, that means the legacy companies won’t even begin to try to reduce the 80% of accidents that Americans currently suffer.
Tesla’s lead in FSD is hard to replicate because they keep working on it for more than a decade now. (Btw, also discussed in the earnings call). They plan to release FSD v15 first half next year which should be “unsupervised”.
For practical purposes current FSD is good enough. So the question is when competition is going to have what Tesla has today (while Tesla ships something even better). At the very best – three years, but given their inability to execute, maybe practically speaking 5-6 years.
A lot of companies went into lidar hi-def map dead end while Tesla stuck to more practical camera approach, so Waymo’s tech, while good, is not easily transferable to consumer cars.
Anyway, my strong advice is to order YL right now and enjoy it. We live in singularity times, and uncertainty and planning horizons are very compressed.
I had range anxiety as well when I was ordering our first Teslas, but in practice it turned out not to be a problem – charging at home is very convenient, and superchargers are plenty and fast enough. Second motor helps in wet conditions and with corner stability as well, so it’s not fully useless for Florida. I think they are not going to ship single motor YL ever, since it’s a premium car in their mind.
Gemini says that the Y L is only $3,000 more than the regular Y. On the other hand, there is no RWD Y L even in China and a year after the machine was introduced. That’s odd indeed considering that there are plenty of snow-free parts of China.
The Y L Launch edition is a $5k-7k bump here in the U.S. over the Y, according to Gemini, if you value all of the stuff that is included, e.g., custom colors, bigger wheels (which usually give you more interior noise and a harsher ride so they have negative value in my view).
Coming soon to the front page news: “Table Chainsaw Rotating at 3,800 RPM Fails to Stop, Slices Off Man’s Fingers.”