Tesla is relying on technical support from Apple as it seeks to prove that a Model X driver who worked for Apple was playing a video game on his iPhone when he crashed and subsequently died.
Rachel Graf for Bloomberg News:
Lawyers for the family of Walter Huang, an engineer who was killed on his commute to work, say his former employer is “secretly” maneuvering to support Tesla’s attempt to blame distracted driving for the wreck. A National Transportation Safety Board investigation had failed to reach a definitive conclusion about what Huang was doing in the final seconds before impact.
Based on forensic examinations of Huang’s iPhone, Tesla has said he was playing Sega’s Total War: Three Kingdoms at the time of the crash, though the Huang family’s attorneys say Tesla can’t prove that just because the app was open on his screen.
The two sides are sparring over whether Tesla can call an Apple engineering manager as a witness for a two-month trial set to start next week in state court in San Jose.
Tesla obtained a sworn statement from an Apple engineering manager, James Harding, who analyzed unencrypted telemetry data on Huang’s phone and said it “suggests possible user interaction, which might be a screen touch or button press.”
The Huang family’s lawyers have countered in a court filing that Tesla purposefully hid its questioning of Harding from them until after pretrial fact-finding deadlines. They are now trying to force Apple to provide more information, and the iPhone maker is pushing back, saying that it shouldn’t have to hand over confidential material.
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MacDailyNews Take: As per Tesla support:
The currently enabled Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous… While using Autopilot, it is your responsibility to stay alert, keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times and maintain control of your vehicle… Before enabling Autopilot, the driver first needs to agree to “keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times” and to always “maintain control and responsibility for your vehicle.” Subsequently, every time the driver engages Autopilot, they are shown a visual reminder to “keep your hands on the wheel.”
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So it sounds like if you follow Tesla’s guidelines that you really wasted a lot of money on “AutoPilot”. I see the need to not trust an automated system but why spend the money on it? Automation sometimes assists the driver who might otherwise have made a mistake (ie drifting out of your lane or stopping when you don’t see that pedestrian in the crosswalk etc.) and that’s a good thing but AutoPilot? There’s a current tv ad boasting hands free driving from a different auto maker but I think if your hands aren’t on the wheel you aren’t driving, you’re riding. Hope no one else ends up in an accident from “Hands Free” driving.
These days, when one has to be concerned when flying in a plane piloted by an actual person, relying completely on an unproven digital pilot, is somewhat idiotic.
Someday maybe.
Tesla’s driver assist program should NEVER have been called AUTOPILOT in the first place because that particular airplane-oriented word falsely evokes presumed capabilities that are just not present for the drivers of Teslas. But Elon was adamant and so now there’s a muddle and too many folks have subsequently died gruesomely and unnecessarily because of it. Totally autonomous self-driving cars are at least 10-15 years off, at which time substantially more powerful onboard computers, AI-based software, and many more accurate sensing mechanisms will enable it. Until then there’s no such thing. If you have to direct people to be constantly mindful of the road and to keep hands on the steering wheel at all times, then you don’t have an AUTOPILOT.
Poorly named ‘Autopilot’ invites the idiorati to misbehave.
Should be called Drive-assist or something similar.