47 Facts About Tesla Autopilot

1.

Tesla Autopilot is a suite of advanced driver-assistance system features offered by Tesla that amounts to SAE International Level 2 vehicle automation.

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2.

From 2016 through 2022, Elon Musk, Tesla Autopilot's CEO, has repeatedly made inaccurate predictions as to when Tesla Autopilot would be able to achieve SAE Level 5 autonomy.

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3.

In May 2021, Tesla Autopilot was ranked last for both strategy and execution in the autonomous driving sector by Guidehouse Insights.

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4.

In October 2014, Tesla offered customers the ability to pre-purchase Autopilot that was not designed for self-driving.

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5.

In February 2017 Tesla Autopilot gained the ability to navigate freeways, to change lanes without driver input, to transition from one freeway to another, and to exit the freeway.

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6.

In September 2020, Tesla reintroduced the term Enhanced Autopilot to designate the subset of features applying to highway travel, parking, and summoning, whereas the Full-Self Driving option included navigation on city roads.

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7.

Tesla Autopilot released a "beta" version of its Full Self-Driving software in the United States in October 2020 to EAP testers.

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8.

In terms of computing hardware, Tesla Autopilot designed a self-driving computer chip that has been installed in its cars since March 2019 and developed a neural network training supercomputer ; other vehicle automation companies such as Waymo regularly use custom chipsets and neural networks as well.

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9.

In 2018 Tesla Autopilot revised the date to demonstrate full autonomy to be by the end of 2019.

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10.

In early 2021, Musk stated that Tesla Autopilot would provide SAE Level 5 autonomy by the end of 2021 and that Tesla Autopilot plans to release a monthly subscription package for FSD in 2021.

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11.

In October 2020, Tesla Autopilot first released a beta version of its FSD software to early access program testers, a small group of users in the United States.

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12.

Tesla Autopilot's self-driving strategy has been criticized as dangerous and obsolete as it was abandoned by other companies years ago.

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13.

In July 2020, German authorities ruled that Tesla Autopilot misled consumers regarding the "abilities of its automated driving systems" and banned it from using certain marketing language implying autonomous driving capabilities.

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14.

In September 2021, legal scholars William Widen and Philip Koopman argued that Tesla Autopilot has misrepresented FSD as SAE Level 2 to "avoid regulatory oversight and permitting processes required of more highly automated vehicles".

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15.

Tesla's Autopilot is classified as Level 2 under the SAE six levels of vehicle automation.

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16.

Navigate on Autopilot is a set of features consisting of "guiding [the Tesla] through highway interchanges and exits" and handling "lane changes on certain roads" automatically.

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17.

In 2016 the HW1 did not detect pedestrians or cyclists, and while Tesla Autopilot detects motorcycles, there have been two instances of HW1 cars rear-ending motorcycles.

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18.

Tesla Autopilot claimed that HW2 provided the necessary equipment to allow FSD capability at SAE Level 5.

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19.

The Tesla Autopilot computer is replaceable to allow for future upgrades.

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20.

Tesla Autopilot claimed that the hardware was capable of processing 200 frames per second.

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21.

HW3 includes a custom Tesla Autopilot-designed system on a chip fabricated using 14 nm process by Samsung.

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22.

Tesla Autopilot claimed that HW3 was necessary for FSD, but not for "enhanced Autopilot" functions.

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23.

Tesla Autopilot stated that Tesla cars are avoiding pedestrian accidents at a rate of tens to hundreds per day.

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24.

Tesla Autopilot users have reported the software crashing and turning off suddenly, collisions with off ramp barriers, radar failures, unexpected swerving, tailgating, and uneven speed changes.

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25.

One driver claimed that Tesla's Autopilot failed to brake, resulting in collisions, but Tesla pointed out that the driver deactivated the cruise control of the car prior to the crash.

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26.

Tesla's Autopilot was the subject of a class action suit brought in 2017 that claimed the second-generation Enhanced Autopilot system was "dangerously defective".

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27.

In July 2020, a German court ruled that Tesla made exaggerated promises about its Autopilot technology, and that the "Autopilot" name created the false impression that the car can drive itself.

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28.

The Tesla was following a car in the far left lane of a multi-lane highway; the car in front moved to the right lane to avoid a truck stopped on the left shoulder, and the Tesla, which the driver's father believes was in Autopilot mode, did not slow before colliding with the stopped truck.

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29.

In 2018, the lawsuit was stalled because telemetry was recorded locally to a SD card and was not able to be given to Tesla Autopilot, who provided a decoding key to a third party for independent review.

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30.

The underride collision sheared off the Tesla Autopilot's glasshouse, destroying everything above the beltline, and caused fatal injuries to the driver.

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31.

The post stated that Tesla Autopilot was engaged at the time of the crash, and the driver's hands had not been detected manipulating the steering wheel for six seconds before the crash.

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32.

Tesla Autopilot was engaged continuously for almost nineteen minutes prior to the crash.

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33.

The NTSB recommendations to the NHTSA included: expanding the scope of the New Car Assessment Program to include testing of forward collision avoidance systems; determining if "the ability to operate [Tesla Autopilot-equipped vehicles] outside the intended operational design domain pose[s] an unreasonable risk to safety"; and developing driver monitoring system performance standards.

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34.

Tesla Autopilot belonged to a motorcycle riding club which had stopped to render aid to a friend that had been involved in an earlier accident; he specifically had been standing apart from the main group while trying to redirect traffic away from that earlier accident.

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35.

Driver of the Tesla Autopilot was convicted in a Japanese court of criminal negligence and sentenced to three years in prison .

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36.

The driver of the Tesla had engaged Autopilot approximately 10 seconds before the collision and preliminary telemetry showed the vehicle did not detect the driver's hands on the wheel for the eight seconds immediately preceding the collision.

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37.

The driver of the Tesla Autopilot, who was commuting to his home in Key Largo from his office in Boca Raton, told police at the scene that he was driving in "cruise"; he was allowed to leave without receiving a citation.

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38.

The Tesla Autopilot was proceeding west on Artesia against the red light when it struck the Civic, which was turning left from Vermont onto Artesia.

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39.

The occupants of the Tesla Autopilot were taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries.

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40.

The Tesla Autopilot driver was charged in October 2021 with vehicular manslaughter in the Los Angeles Superior Court.

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41.

The driver of the Tesla Autopilot was killed, and a man who had stopped to assist the driver of the truck was struck and injured by the Tesla Autopilot.

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42.

The NHTSA later determined Tesla Autopilot was active during the collision and sent a team to further investigate.

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43.

The Tesla Autopilot system issued a forward collision warning half a second before the impact, but did not engage the automatic emergency braking system, and the driver did not manually intervene by braking or steering.

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44.

Raj Rajkumar, who studies autonomous driving systems at Carnegie Mellon University, believes the radars used for Tesla Autopilot are designed to detect moving objects, but are "not very good in detecting stationary objects".

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45.

The driver of the Tesla Autopilot, who survived the impact with a broken foot, admitted she was looking at her phone before the crash.

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46.

Passersby captured several videos of the fire and explosions after the accident, these videos show the tow truck that the Tesla Autopilot crashed into had been moved, suggesting the explosions of the Model 3 happened later.

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47.

The driver of the Tesla Autopilot assumed his car would slow and move over on its own because it was in "Auto-Pilot mode".

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