In case you didn't know, Tesla makes fully electric vehicles which come with an "auto pilot" feature. It's not a conplete driverless experience, but does vastly improve the safety of driving. Recently a person died while in a Tesla with auto pilot activated.

Ken Perlin, a professor and blogger who specialises in software and VR:

"Today there were several in-depth articles in the New York Times about the first reported death in a Tesla while the car was driving itself. The death occurred on May 1, when a tractor-trailer unexpectedly cut off the vehicle, and the robot autopilot failed to swerve out of the way.

"The slant of every article was the same: Because the Tesla’s autopilot failed to save its occupant, maybe self-driving cars are not yet ready for prime time.

"What the articles failed to acknowledge was that the death was caused not by an errant Tesla autopilot, but by an errant tractor-trailer driver. A human, through faulty decision making, inadvertently killed another human, and the Tesla’s software failed to prevent that death."

Ken's point perfectly points out what everyone is missing in the recent Tesla accident. The crash was caused by a human! His parable at the end sums it up nicely.

"So why is this story not being reported for what it really is? Suppose after the horrific shooting in Orlando, the news media had focused entirely on the failure of bullet proof vests to save every victim.

"I can envision hand-wringing editorials declaring that bullet proof vests are not yet ready for prime time, and criticizing the makers of bullet proof vests for not taking responsibility for the lives of the murdered people their vests had failed to save.

"Wouldn’t that be a completely idiotic view of the situation?"

Click here to read blog post in full.

http://blog.kenperlin.com/?p=17531