Victim In Tesla Autopilot Crash Was Watching A Harry Potter Movie At Time Of Accident

If true, he was doing EXACTLY what most people want from a self driving vehicle. The ability to go along for the ride and bear no responsibility.

Exactly, and because these systems are still in the pioneering phase, I feel its especially important for manufacturers to require some level of input periodically, again such as Mercedes autonomous drive.

Had Tesla's system required some attentiveness from this owner, he would have noticed A HUGE TRACTOR TRAILER turning in front of him when his Tesla failed too, and did something to reduce the severity of the crash or avoided it altogether.

@ Car4life1

The driver was warned several times not to do what they did. Just because the car and drive itself, does not mean that the driver has no responsibility in ensuring the safe operation of their vehicle.

To your point, even with requirements for periodic driver input, that does not mean that this accident would not have occurred.

Again...a system prompting drivers input does not prevent all accidents but can help to reduce the severity of a crash like that prompting the driver to pay attention all along the journey and not just moments before impact.

To your point the driver was alerted just before the accident...that's s little too late, had the driver been promoted to stay alert throughout his commute... This convo may not even be happening today...

Just to put it into perspective for you, the number of vehicles Mercedes has sold with autonomous driving systems is nearly 10 times that of what Tesla has sold...yet no fatalities as of yet or severe accidents involving a Benz engaged in autonomous mode...hmmmm

All the paid Tesla moutpieces are doing spin control today saying "it's in Beta" and "the system says you have to pay attention, keep your hands on the wheel". Meanwhile there are videos of people using it while sleeping, or from the backseat of the car. This is why the systems from EVERY OTHER MANUFACTURER currently don't just SAY "keep your hands on the wheel", they actually require you to touch the wheel every few seconds to make sure you're paying attention. Autonomous systems are not ready for public use, and these Tesla PR flackies should be ashamed of themselves for defending that company putting the lives of everyone on the road at risk while they "Beta test". If that was ANY other brand they'd be getting crucified today. It's sickening.

Somewhat irresponsible headline. The person claiming that a movie was playing admitted not actually seeing the movie but hearing it. And Tesla stated that videos cannot be played on the screen in the car. So, until true facts are laid out, something like "allegedly" should be added to this headline.

Very very easy to override the feature. How nothing keeps him from watching on a phone or tablet either

May be time to start a list of things people were doing while riding in their autonomous driven cars...let me be the first to start. Listening to Harry Potter, reading, having sex, drinking, knitting, yoga, changing clothes, cleaning their gun, putting on makeup, sleeping, etc etc.

The lynch mod is out in force. Where were you guys last week when the fatal "incident" on the GC occurred ?

The video thing is coming from the truck driver, based on a witness account that was not confirmed. Like TheSteve previously said, reserve your judgement until the investigation concludes.

Henry, you're the very definition of a troll.

We had TWO stories on the Jeep and the actor's death.

Agent00R: bullshit! The verdict was already included in the headline.

Aren't something like 100 people killed every single day while driving "regular" cars?

Well if he was watching Harry Potter, then it's not Tesla's fault. Harry Potter people are such flaming wastes of human life.

Tesla needs to lose big for putting a technology out that was (1) not well engineered and (2) was purported to be what the name says: autopilot.

Mercedes is technologically behind Tesla as our resident Tesla fanboy is fond of pointing out and it's because Mercedes--by far the more intelligent and competent engineer of new automotive technologies than Tesla--knows the technology is not ready for production nor safe for consumers to trust.

If more Tesla Autopilot deaths happen, it could stain the idea of autonomous driving so much that the public rejects it. I all for that.

The Tesla was in Darwin Award mode.