"Tesla’s comparisons are also undermined by the fact that its expensive, relatively large vehicles are much safer in a crash than most vehicles on the road, says Bryant Walker Smith, an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina. He describes comparisons of the rate of accidents by Autopilot with population-wide statistics as “ludicrous on their face.” Tesla did not respond to a request asking it to explain why Musk and the company compare figures from very different kinds of driving.
“The crash could have been a continuation of an established narrative about the costs and benefits, not a surprise event,” says Smith. That more cautious approach may have sold less cars in the short run, but helped the prospects of Tesla and others banking on self-driving technology in the long term, he says. “Companies need to start saying what safety means, how they define and measure that safety and how they will monitor it,” he says."
- Date Published:07/06/2016
- Original Publication:MIT Technology Review