Tesla has recently been under fire with their autopilot system which was the cause of a recent crash that resulted in a death of the driver. Version 2018.21.9 was rolled out and the one key point of the update was to “nag” drivers to keep their hands on the wheel during autopilot mode.
In previous versions, the nagging beep would only appear after several minutes if the driver took his hands off the wheel whilst in autopilot mode. With the new update, the nagging would come after 30 seconds. Tesla has also made that the car will come to a stop slowly and safely in the event if the warnings were ignored.
Although on paper that might be the safe way, customers have taken to Twitter to also complain about the feature.
Sigh. This is crux of matter: can’t make system too annoying or people won’t use it, negatively affecting safety, but also can’t allow people to get too complacent or safety again suffers. Latest update should have a positive effect on latter issue especially.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 10 June 2018
Tesla’s autopilot system has been blamed multiple times not just on the technology but how it was initially “marketed” that seem to make customers think that it is a self-driving technology. The technology instead is closer to a driver assisted system which Musk is adamant that it makes driving safer. Ars Technica, on the other hand, says that the technology has yet to prove that it can save lives.
