Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/723417
VOICES 12 | Overdrive | September 2016 Since the well-publi- cized fatal collision in Florida of an "Autopi- lot"-enabled Tesla Mod- el S with the underside of a trucker's reefer trailer, national attention has focused on the acceleration of auton- omous vehicle development. Truckers are worried for their own safety in sharing the road with cars such as the Tesla, whose Autopilot function is sold to consumers as having the ability to eff ectively steer – and stop – the vehicle. The death in the daytime truck crash, however, exposed a clear design fl aw in that the program did not distinguish between the white side of the trailer and the bright sunlit sky. Truckers polled in August agreed by and large with much of Consumer Reports' verdict about the technology. Slightly more than a third of respon- dents say that all of the magazine's recommendations (detailed in the poll responses) should be taken up before Tesla's Autopilot gets prime time on U.S. highways. Some readers took it further, stressing hoops to jump through before allowing operation. License to pilot such a unit might be "the proper place for a speed limiter, and an ELD, driver training, riding with an experi- enced driver, then a special license to operate with an endorsement for pas- sengers, groceries, etc." So cracked wise a reader posting as Tdktrans un- der a story at OverdriveOnline.com about the National Transportation Safety Board's ongoing investigation of the accident. "Then you can have your little self-driving car to go as you please." Though the car was found to be traveling at 9 mph over the posted speed limit, Don McGrady noted that the truck and the trailer it ran under "should not have crossed the road in front of the car if there was not suf- fi cient room to do so without causing the risk of collision." Readers: No to 'beta' testing with lives at stake Should Tesla's 'Autopilot' system be modified or disabled in the wake of recent crashes? OverdriveOnline.com poll Yes, it should be disabled until reliability is proven 30% Autopilot function shouldn't allow driver to remove hands from the wheel 6% It should be renamed so it doesn't encourage driver inattention 6% Not sure 3% No, real-world 'beta' testing should be allowed 20% All of the above 35% HOT BUTTONS AUTO PILOT AUTO PILOT Yes, that's what it looks like – something of a high-speed "love tap" from one highway user to another that adds a warped meaning to "sharing the road." The video still image comes from Wayne Smith's August upload to Overdrive's Dashcam Central repository for reader-sub- mitted videos. Smith was hauling out of Allentown, Pa., on I-78 "when a couple of bikes were too impatient," he says. A little reck- less, too, which is evident when, for no apparent reason, "the second bike pulls into the lane already occupied by a semi and then touches the [truck's trailer] with his hand." Catch this and more video views through readers' wind- shields, or upload your own via OverdriveOnline.com/ dashcamcentral. New low for 'sharing the road' The wreckage of the Tesla Model S involved in a crash that was fatal for its driver earlier this year. NTSB noted that, with Tesla's beta "Autopilot" function enabled at the time of the crash, the vehicle was speeding. NTSB