Inadequate driver monitoring means that Autopilot is far too easily misused.
Enlarge / Tesla says that Autopilot users should always keep both hands on the steering wheel. (credit: CBS)
More than 2 million Tesla electric vehicles are subject to a new safety recall today. At issue is the much-criticized Autopilot driver-assistance feature, more specifically the Autosteer component.
At one time, Tesla claimed that Autosteer cut crashes by 40 percent—a statistic that turned out to be completely false once a third party analyzed the data. Now, following an ongoing engineering analysis by the National Highway Safety Administration Office of Defects Investigation that found Tesla has inadequate driver monitoring and that the system could lead to "foreseeable misuse," the automaker has finally reacted.
Autopilot is Tesla's name for a suite of advanced driver assistance systems, but the two principal components are "traffic-aware cruise control" and Autosteer. The former maintains the car's speed relative to a vehicle in front, and the latter reads lane markers on the road and keeps the car between them. The system was originally based on one supplied by Mobileye, although that relationship broke down, and Tesla was dropped as a customer by Mobileye due to Mobileye's concern that Tesla was "pushing the envelope in terms of safety."
