Why Do Teslas Keep Smashing Emergency Vehicles? (Warning: Graphic images in article)

[Crissa]

Taking a look at the pictures I am not even going to completely blame the driver... It looks like there are no lights on the ladder portion, and at the angle it looks like the ladder was blocking the lights on the cab.

There are lights on it from all angles.

-Crissa

 

[Zabhawkin]

There are lights on it from all angles.

-Crissa

Where other than the far front and far rear? Every thing else I see looks like reflections.

 

[Crissa]

Where other than the far front and far rear? Every thing else I see looks like reflections.

Generally they turn off the power in vehicles which have been collided with.

-Crissa

 

[Zabhawkin]

Generally they turn off the power in vehicles which have been collided with.

-Crissa

The lights on top of the cab are still lit, and in one of the other pictures a side light on the front half is still lit.

 

[Ogre]

Media puts Tesla accidents on the front page.

Meanwhile incidents like this got page zero. Don’t know for sure, but there is a fair chance one or the other was on FSD or Autopilot.

 

[Jhodgesatmb]

It looks like passenger may survive so they may be able to clarify if FSD or autopilot was engaged.

In this case, regardless of if it FSD was engaged, I think it was very likely the driver was doing something irresponsible (hard to miss those flashing lights especially if it was at night). That said, in general I don’t quite understand the argument that driver should have payed attention when FSD was engaged. Isn’t the whole point of FSD is being able to pay less attention? Even if you have signed some sort of release or agreement that you will pay attention and are responsible, wouldn’t Paying less attention be a natural byproduct of FSD? If any of you have been selected to test FSD beta, and can be honest here (since you are not using your real name), please share how much attention you paid throughout (the beginning, middle and end of) testing period in comparison to when you drove a vehicle with no driver assistance.

For me it has always been a binary thing. Either I can trust it or I can’t. Anything in between, I rather it is someone else testing it on a road I am not using.

I use my real name and am in the beta program. FSD doesn’t like blinking lights or LEDs, and I was driving more than once, and actually enjoying the scenery because EAP was doing such a good job, and it disengaged and put me in AP jail.

That said I was driving into San Francisco on the Bay Bridge a couple weeks ago and 3 hot shots came weaving through traffic at 20-30 mph faster than the flow. Someone driving like that, no matter what car they are driving, would vaporize against a fire truck. There are also a lot of people driving Tesla’s that have no place in a car of any kind. These scenarios make it difficult to say what happened in this accident but provide plenty of clues.

Personally, I want Tesla, when it sees a first responder, and if some form of FSD is engaged, to take over, pull to the side of the road, and stop, as required, and I want it to do that if it finds me or any other driver impaired or unable to drive.

Sadly we live in a ime when people are able to select an AP feature and still wrest control of a vehicle, and that will itself lead to problems.

 

[Diehard]

I use my real name and am in the beta program. FSD doesn’t like blinking lights or LEDs, and I was driving more than once, and actually enjoying the scenery because EAP was doing such a good job, and it disengaged and put me in AP jail.

That said I was driving into San Francisco on the Bay Bridge a couple weeks ago and 3 hot shots came weaving through traffic at 20-30 mph faster than the flow. Someone driving like that, no matter what car they are driving, would vaporize against a fire truck. There are also a lot of people driving Tesla’s that have no place in a car of any kind. These scenarios make it difficult to say what happened in this accident but provide plenty of clues.

Personally, I want Tesla, when it sees a first responder, and if some form of FSD is engaged, to take over, pull to the side of the road, and stop, as required, and I want it to do that if it finds me or any other driver impaired or unable to drive.

Sadly we live in a ime when people are able to select an AP feature and still wrest control of a vehicle, and that will itself lead to problems.

There should be some redundancies; First responder vehicles should broadcast some sort of short range radio signal that smart cars can pickup and react to. Of course then we will have to have some jail time for kids that fake the signal for fun.

 

[Crissa]

The lights on top of the cab are still lit, and in one of the other pictures a side light on the front half is still lit.

There's another vehicle in front of it. It's a white response car, you can see the tail lights.

-Crissa

 

[HaulingAss]

https://news.google.com/articles/CBMiVGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm5iY2JheWFyZWEuY29tL25ld3MvbG9jYWwvdGVzbGEtZmlyZS10cnVjay1jcmFzaC1pLTY4MC1lYXN0LWJheS8zMTYwOTg0L9IBWmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm5iY2JheWFyZWEuY29tL25ld3MvbG9jYWwvdGVzbGEtZmlyZS10cnVjay1jcmFzaC1pLTY4MC1lYXN0LWJheS8zMTYwOTg0Lz9hbXA9MQ?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en

Anyone wanna venture a guess as to why (aside from the fact that the media chooses to focus on anything that can be considered a “Tesla Hit-piece”) that there have been so many incidents of autopilot veering into or close to parked emergency vehicles with their flashing lights? (The article does not say whether autopilot was engaged, but i think there is implication of such)

Considering how many parked emergency vehicles are hit every year by cars that are not Tesla, it's really odd why you would ask us to exclude media bias in reporting Tesla accidents much more vigorously than other brands.

That's like saying, "Other than the fact that I was letting really stinky farts in the front seat, why did everyone exit the car so quickly when we arrived?"

 

[JCERRN]

Considering how many parked emergency vehicles are hit every year by cars that are not Tesla, it's really odd why you would ask us to exclude media bias in reporting Tesla accidents much more vigorously than other brands.

That's like saying, "Other than the fact that I was letting really stinky farts in the front seat, why did everyone exit the car so quickly when we arrived?"

well it was more the question of why is it happening at all, let alone frequently enough for the MSM to report it, with a system that is supposed to eventually replace human drivers. Ive driven teslas with FSD and AP and know its not perfect and can easily be overwhelmed and bamboozled… i just wanted to see if others had input on why it may be happening. I really want FSD to win the autonomous driving race but its looking less and less likely that it will.

 

[Ogre]

well it was more the question of why is it happening at all, let alone frequently enough for the MSM to report it, with a system that is supposed to eventually replace human drivers. Ive driven teslas with FSD and AP and know its not perfect and can easily be overwhelmed and bamboozled… i just wanted to see if others had input on why it may be happening. I really want FSD to win the autonomous driving race but its looking less and less likely that it will.

Same reason Tiger Woods crashed his SUV.

As has been pointed out. It happens a lot, with a variety of vehicles. The media doesn’t report on 99% of accidents that happen and the 1% they do report on are the particularly heinous, involve celebrities, or involve Teslas. Why? Because those stories attract readers.

It happens because the driver is snoozing, drunk, reading a book, texting their girlfriend, arguing with someone on the phone…

 

[SwampNut]

frequently enough for the MSM to report it

Actually that means it’s infrequent. ICE fires and non Tesla crashes are so common they stopped reporting them.

 

[SwampNut]

AP screwed up on me today, and took me off guard. In its defense, it was a weird intersection where the lanes on the far side do not match the lanes on the side I was coming from. It has to do a jog inside the intersection, with no curve or warning in the lines. It tried to go from originating in the right lane to ending in the left. I caught it, but it really startled me.

In my defense, or in my admission of being a complete idiot, there was a really attractive and barely clothed woman crossing in the crosswalk and I was not looking straight ahead.

This was a predictable unpredictable, meaning if I knew about the jog I would have taken over to begin with. I had not been to that intersection before.

 

[Ogre]

AP screwed up on me today, and took me off guard. In its defense, it was a weird intersection where the lanes on the far side do not match the lanes on the side I was coming from. It has to do a jog inside the intersection, with no curve or warning in the lines. It tried to go from originating in the right lane to ending in the left. I caught it, but it really startled me.

In my defense, or in my admission of being a complete idiot, there was a really attractive and barely clothed woman crossing in the crosswalk and I was not looking straight ahead.

This was a predictable unpredictable, meaning if I knew about the jog I would have taken over to begin with. I had not been to that intersection before.

The AP stack is 4 years old and not designed to do a whole lot more than follow lanes. Sounds like it’s finally going to get an update when FSD v11 gets released and the full stack comes out.

 

[HaulingAss]

well it was more the question of why is it happening at all, let alone frequently enough for the MSM to report it, with a system that is supposed to eventually replace human drivers. Ive driven teslas with FSD and AP and know its not perfect and can easily be overwhelmed and bamboozled… i just wanted to see if others had input on why it may be happening. I really want FSD to win the autonomous driving race but its looking less and less likely that it will.

How do you know it's happening at a higher rate than the general fleet at large? And how do you know that each Tesla even had access to FSD, let alone had it engaged, every reported instance? Because people run into emergency vehicles parked on the side of the road all the time.