Yahoo Autos Consumer Reports Calls for Tesla to Disable Autopilot Auto Steering, Rename Tech
Following news of a fatal crash involving a Model S operated in Autopilot mode, Tesla Motors and its outspoken CEO Elon Musk have faced intense scrutiny over the feature. Both NHTSA, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the crash, and SEC is also investigating Tesla for failing to disclose the crash to investors before selling $2 billion in stock. Musk has said Tesla won't disable Autopilot in the wake of this, but now Consumer Reports is calling on the company to disable its Autosteer feature and rename Autopilot all together.
Per Reuters, Consumer Reports says that the name 'Autopilot' misleads consumers into thinking their Model S or X is a self-driving car, when in reality, it's only semi-autonomous. Tesla for its part has said that it will try to re-educate customers on what Autopilot is, and arguably of more importance, what it isn't. Elon Musk recently told the Wall Street Journal the company is working on writing a blog post to better explain how the system works.
"By marketing their feature as 'Autopilot,' Tesla gives consumers a false sense of security," said Laura MacCleery, vice president of consumer policy and mobilization for Consumer Reports, in a statement. "In the long run, advanced active safety technologies in vehicles could make our roads safer. But today, we're deeply concerned that consumers are being sold a pile of promises about unproven technology."
Consumer Reports has asked Tesla to disable Autosteer until it's updated to force users to keep their hands on the wheel. Currently, Autosteer is the most lenient semiautonomous steering system of its type, allowing drivers to have their hands off the wheel for significant amounts of time. CR also asks Tesla to rename Autopilot to something it thinks is less misleading.
In addition, Consumer Reports takes issue with the fact that Autopilot is still in its public beta phase. "Consumers should never be guinea pigs for vehicle safety 'beta' programs," said MacCleery. Musk has said that Tesla will take Autopilot out of beta once the technology hits 1 billion miles of "real world driving."
After being contacted by Consumer Reports, Tesla said it will "make our decisions on the basis of real-world data, not speculation by media." At the moment, it seems Tesla has no intention of disabling Autosteer or renaming Autopilot, then.
The line Tesla is sticking to regarding this situation is that Autopilot will save more lives in the long run. "[W]e knew we had a system that on balance would save lives," said Musk in a WSJ interview. Musk previously said that Autopilot reduces accident probability by 50 percent, based on early data the company collected.
Since news of the fatal Autopilot crash broke, two additional Model X crashes have occurred with both drivers claiming Autopilot was engaged at the time of the accident.
Autopilot has been a contentious technology since it debuted last fall. It's inarguably a highly advanced system that shows the potential for future semiautonomous technologies, but it also wasn't long before many started using it irresponsibly. Even if Tesla doesn't disable the functionality of Autopilot in any way, it certainly needs to make sure drivers are using it in the most responsible way possible. And that just might mean asking them to keep their hands on the wheel for a little bit longer.
