Can't you just not use it? The driver in the crash activated autopilot intentionally shortly before the crash. He did that and then took his hands off the wheel. I can't comment on autopilots general reliability but using it appears to be entirely optional...
Why would you use it at all at that point? If this guy took his experience with autopilot the first time it almost crashed his car, he'd probably still be alive.
What is the point of Autopilot? It's not self-driving. You're not supposed to let go of the steering wheel and you have to be completely alert to take over if there are problems. Isn't it easier to just not use it in the first place?
I wonder if the driver thought the autopilot was on. A few times I've thought I'd enabled it, and only discovered that I hadn't, when I noticed the car starting to drift to the edge of the lane. It's especially easy to make this mistake when traffic-aware cruise control is on, providing some degree of automation but less than you think.
If you're using the autopilot to provide smoother control, and as a second set of eyes on the road, then thinking it's on when it's off isn't of much consequence. There's been speculation that the May fatality involved using autopilot as a replacement for real-time human oversight. Whether this driver had the autopilot on or off, the root cause – thinking that the presence of the autopilot makes it safe to ignore the road – was the same. If the autopilot was off and the driver thought it was on, though, then one of the suggested solutions – requiring hands on the wheel – might not have addressed this case. Or maybe any cases: I imagine someone who thinks the autopilot relieves them of responsibility is just going to rest a hand on the wheel while they zone out anyway.
I didn’t realize Autopilot disabled the vehicle’s breaks. This poor driver couldn’t stop even after the collision. Seems like a terrible design choice.
When I drove one on autopilot - it would routinely prompt me to put hands on steering wheel. I didn't get them all and autopilot mode was disabled for the rest of my trip. I don't recall the steering wheel prompts to be as obvious as I would have expected since it's so important.
I'm pretty sure it's also designed to pull over and stop if it doesn't get feedback ensuring someone is paying adequate attention.
But maybe the parameters or functionality was different at the time of this crash.
I think autopilot is a great marketing concept but a terrible and inaccurate description of the technology.
At this point I'm starting to be willing to consider it fairly safe when the driver is paying attention. Every press article about an autopilot crash seems to involve somebody who is completely inattentive. I can't recall any published incidents involving a driver using it as an assist, while continuing to pay attention.
This should really be called assisted cruise / piloting or something. Autopilot implies far more automation than what the car is currently capable of which is simply going to lead to more people taking stupid risks.
Some sort of crash / tragedy seems inevitable at this point based from all the videos on youTube.
They shouldn't be allowed to call it 'autopilot', and it should automatically (and very visibly/audibly) disable itself the second a driver takes his or her hands off the steering wheel. Why? Because apparently there are people out there who believe this is true autopilot and will move their attention elsewhere when flying down the road at 74mph.
Autopilot is a SAE level 2 driver assist system; it should never be trusted to keep you safe. Whether or not the system bails out completely prior to a crash is immaterial.
I've completely stopped using Autopilot whenever there is a vehicle behind me (unless it's a highway traffic jam and I'm going <25 mph) because of phantom braking. I only use it when it's completely empty, which of course doesn't happen very often. It's just too unpredictable and I have no interest to be dangerous to others because I want to play with some tech.
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