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Not without risk:
a woman leaves her hands off the wheel while Tesla's autopilot assistance system is activated (archive image from 2015)
Photo: BECK DIEFENBACH / REUTERS
The amazing thing this time is the silence. A few days ago, the influential US consumer magazine Consumer Reports gave the electric car manufacturer Tesla a broadside. According to the magazine, dangerous deficiencies have been found in Tesla's driver assistant called "Autopilot": A Tesla Model Y would drive itself even with an empty driver's seat, according to the Consumer Reports website on Thursday.
It is an attack on one of Tesla's greatest promises: With the help of Tesla's extended "autopilot", its electric cars would soon be able to drive completely autonomously, Tesla boss Elon Musk promises again and again.
Musk is often happy to speak up via Twitter if there are doubts about the autopilot's performance.
Just recently, for example, when he denied via Twitter that an extended autopilot system was activated in a fatal accident.
Shortly before the fatal accident in which, according to police reports, apparently nobody was behind the wheel, Musk had referred to Tesla's safety report via Twitter, according to which drivers with autopilot switched on have a ten times lower frequency of accidents than "average cars" .
To the harsh criticism from Consumer Reports of Tesla's assistance system, however, Musk no longer spoke up via Twitter.
He recently preferred to publish success stories of a different kind via Twitter: For example, about the successful docking maneuver of the space capsule of his second company SpaceX - or a confirmation that he will host an episode of the television comedy show "Saturday Night Life", which is extremely popular in the USA.
Tesla autopilot could bring "extreme danger," says Consumer Reports
The influential US consumer magazine attacked one of Tesla's most discussed technologies head-on.
On a test track, engineers on the Model Y were able to use the program despite an empty driver's seat, Consumer Reports announced on Thursday.
The system did not issue any warnings or notices.
Such a scenario would represent an "extreme danger" on public roads, according to the paper.
Tesla itself points out to customers that the so-called autopilot is only an assistance system and therefore the person in the driver's seat must keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times.
Actually, the software is supposed to notice it and emit warning tones if this is not the case.
But in the Consumer Reports test, the system allegedly failed not only to ensure that the driver can take the wheel at all times - according to the report, it was not even able to determine whether the driver's seat was occupied at all.
"Tesla falls behind other automakers like General Motors and Ford when it comes to models with advanced driver assistance programs that use technology that ensures that the driver can keep an eye on the road," said Jake Fisher, an expert at Consumer Reports.
System freedoms do not necessarily provide more security
In fact, Tesla's assistance system has long been under pressure because of its "autopilot" designation.
Critics think that the name is an exaggeration that could encourage negligent use.
When the system is activated for the first time, Tesla points out its limits in detail.
However, and this is shown by test drives from manager magazin as well as the warnings from dozens of industry experts, the autopilot differs significantly from other assistance systems on the market: the system simply gives the driver more freedom, but this is not necessarily beneficial for safety.
The system seldom deactivates itself even in tight bends. Unlike Mercedes or BMW's assistance systems, for example, Tesla enables its autopilot users to control the car almost completely automatically, at least in the USA, from freeway entrance to freeway exit, including independent lane change.
German manufacturers using similar sensors could probably do that too.
But they don't because they don't judge the technology to be safe enough in every driving situation.
And where other manufacturers rely on cameras around the driver's seat and sensors in the steering wheels and driver's seat to ensure the driver's attention, Tesla is apparently leaving significantly more freedom here.
This is what the Consumer Reports report suggests once again.
Tesla fans are missing a crucial question
Of course, die-hard Tesla fans cannot contest this.
They discuss in detail on the Internet how exactly Consumer Reports claims to have outsmarted the sensors in the Tesla Model Y, and whether they were unlawfully cheated.
But they hardly ask the essential question: Can such an imperfect system, which apparently knows little about the behavior and attention of the driver, actually be used as a preliminary stage for cars in which drivers can take their hands off the steering wheel for longer journeys?
This is exactly what Musk promises for the next evolutionary stage of the autopilot, which is currently in the test phase.
Tesla is already installing the sensors required for this in its new vehicles for an additional charge and even calls the system "full self-driving".
Musk keeps promising that the Teslas equipped with the additional package will soon be able to drive autonomously on motorways. In doing so, he cites the image recognition in Tesla cars, which he believes is superior, and the fact that Tesla cars are already able to independently create detailed maps. The only problem with such claims is that no one outside of Tesla has yet been able to independently evaluate this alleged technological advantage or compare it with other systems.
Tesla's own safety reports are also stingy with data that would enable comparability with other manufacturers.
That may actually be a trade secret.
It is also astonishing, however, that so far there have been hardly any newspaper reports about accidents involving vehicles of the competition in which similar assistance systems were activated - even if such crashes have certainly happened thousands of times.
What is certain, however, is that the "autopilot" will continue to be an assistance system according to all common criteria - even if Musk likes to portray it differently.
This discussion about the safety and limitations of Tesla's autopilots is likely to gain momentum in the near future.
And this time around, a few Musk tweets probably won't put her away.
wed with material from DPA
