Elon’s test track is anywhere a Tesla owner wants to drive, or anywhere the autopilot wants to drive. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:
Who gets the blame when the government knowingly allows the public roads to be used as a test-track for dangerous technologies?
That’s the question which the federal “safety” apparat – the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – will probably not be asking itself as it “probes” the self-crashing cars electric car manufacturer Tesla has been testing on public roads . . with living crash test dummies.
Tesla has never hidden that it offers self-crashing technology; it simply advertises it as “self-driving” capability, styled Autopilot. It has been offering it for years. The media has been reporting on it for years. The crashes – and deaths – have been happening for years. Most recently in Texas about a week ago, when a 2019 Model S equipped with Tesla’s Autopilot system left the road “at a high rate of speed” and self-drove into a tree.
Two men were killed. Apparently, neither one was in the driver’s seat.
This is not, however, the first time.
Or the tenth time.
There have been at least two dozen other crashes over the past several years involving Teslas equipped with Autopilot technology. Videos have been posted to social media of people literally asleep behind the wheel of their Teslas. On purpose. Some of these have hundreds of thousands of views and made national network news. Owners openly brag about not driving their cars.
If NHTSA wasn’t aware there might be a problem with AutoPilot, Rip Van Winkle phone home.
NHTSA, of course, is perfectly aware. It is merely selective about “safety” – calling into question whether that is its raison d’ etre . . . or its excuse.
STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC 