By now, every Tesla aficionado has heard about the Tesla that crashed in Texas, supposedly while on Autopilot.
The car was thought to be on Autopilot because no one was found in the driver's seat after the battery fire was extinguished. One man was in the front passenger seat, and the other was in a back seat. The article doesn't specify which back seat. The article makes the point that Sandy Munro, an engineer who often comments on Teslas and other electric cars, says that the odds are still in favor of people who use Autopilot since they have fewer accidents than people who don't use it. However, in this case, Autopilot, a standard feature in this Tesla, was not engaged.
It's not clear how a Tesla with no one in the driver's seat can even move. My Tesla can move without a driver only with smart summon, but that's a feature of FSD (full self-driving). The car that crashed in Texas didn't have FSD. And if it did, the smart summon feature is limited to such slow speeds that this kind of accident couldn't be fatal. Sadly, the accident in Texas was fatal to the two men found in the car. I offer condolences to the family
There's going to be an investigation. Thinking about the situation, I see only two possible causes for this accident. The men were in a Tesla with plain old ordinary Autopilot, not the beta version that most of us are still eagerly awaiting. The one where you get to push a button, promise to keep paying attention to the road and get the advanced version.
But Autopilot wasn't engaged. The article points out that the car failed to negotiate a turn and crashed into a tree. The thing is, no Tesla driver expects Autopilot to properly negotiate a sharp curve or turn a corner properly. It didn't take me very long to figure that out. I knew it by the time I'd driven home from the Tesla store, a ten-minute drive. But, again, Autopilot wasn't engaged. To me that means that either there was a driver who escaped the car after the accident, or, more ominously, the driver thought he had engaged Autopilot, and then climbed into either the front passenger seat or the rear seat while the car was moving. That would have been unwise. It's still puzzling though. If the car is in regenerative mode, it starts to slow down, and then stops, once the foot is no longer depressing the accelerator once Autopilot is no longer engaged. There is a mode where the car keeps rolling along though. Sometimes, Autopilot disengages with an audible alarm, but cruise control keeps the car moving until the brake is tapped. You can't press the brake if you're sitting in the back or in the right front seat.
Plain old ordinary Autopilot doesn't do sharp curves all by itself. But what Autopilot does do is check to see if the driver is exerting some force on the steering wheel every ten seconds or so. If no such force is felt, there's an audible alarm and a visible notation on the touch screen. If that's ignored, Autopilot shuts off and the driver needs to start steering the car. At that point, if the driver isn't paying attention to the road, or isn't even in the driver's seat, the car might well crash into something. Autopilot definitely needs driver intervention at times. There are plenty of videos showing that.
There's one particular YouTube guy who makes excellent videos on the beta version of FSD. He goes by the name of Dirty Tesla. Apparently, that name refers to the fact that he lives on a dirt road, and he doesn't wash his Tesla very often. But he does a great job of making videos of himself letting his Tesla drive itself most of the time, but intervening when necessary. And that's with the beta version of FSD. Even that needs driver intervention occasionally. Go to YouTube and search on DirtyTesla.
Elon Musk has been promising to put a button in the Service section of the menu that will cause the beta version to be downloaded. The problem is, he keeps putting off the time when the button will appear. Musk has said that for those who didn't buy FSD (full self-driving), there will be a subscription to FSD starting in May.
My recommendation on this is that Autopilot without FSD is standard equipment and is probably just fine until the beta version of FSD is available. I don't recommend subscribing to FSD or even buying it, until you can get the beta version. I find it frustrating that I bought FSD last June, and I don't get much benefit from it. So new buyers, vote with your wallet. Don't get FSD until you can get the one that works on local streets and makes sharp turns safely.
