DETROIT (AP) – Consumer Reports said Thursday that Tesla Motors is misleading auto owners by calling its semi-autonomous driving system “Autopilot”, potentially giving them too much trust in their car’s ability to drive itself.
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Consumer Reports, which at one point gave the Model S its highest rating ever, essentially demanded California-based Tesla disable the Autopilot feature on its cars until it can reprogram it to require that drivers keep one hand on the wheel every five minutes.
Research by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that drivers using automated driving systems took an average of 17 seconds to regain control of a vehicle. However, she underlines that there are concerns over the “unproven technology”.
Other auto brands, including Lincoln, Volvo, Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz have steering technology similar to that included in Tesla’s Autopilot, but those manufacturers require drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel nearly all the time.
The editors of Consumer Reports say the name Autopilot is “misleading and potentially risky”.
The NHTSA examination comes as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly is investigating Tesla for possible violation of securities laws, according to the Wall Street Journal.
These incidents do not make Chief executive Elon Musk to look out for option to disable autopilot.
Autopilot contains an automatic steering portion that assists drivers by steering, accelerating and braking Tesla cars automatically on lane-marked highways. Under current regulations, the agency doesn’t test or approve the systems.
Earlier this week, NHTSA said it wants records of how many times the system told drivers to put their hands on the wheel and how often that led to the auto automatically reducing vehicle power.
As an investigation into the first fatal crash involving an Autopilot-equipped Tesla Model S continues, the electric-car company had some good news to share on Thursday. It wants the company to remove Autopilot from cars until “it updates the program to verify that the driver’s hands are on the wheel”.
Tesla Motors ended its buyback program promising customers the retail value of its vehicles, and slashed the price of its Model X SUV Wednesday in hopes of giving it the extra money needed to weather recent financial storms. Road and Track said on its website this week that Autopilot is a technological achievement that should make America proud.
“Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor-trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied”, Tesla said in the June 30 blog posting.
“An ex-Navy SEAL would be more likely to understand the need for a human in the loop, especially in a Beta release”. Drivers should take heed when their vehicle asks them to pay attention.
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Meanwhile Mitchell’s current TESLA is leased.
