There’s a graph in the article, showing that the throttle pedal position was not at 100% until the time of impact.

An airplane’s autopilot is also not a 100% self-flying system, and there’s a reason why there’s two pilots in the cockpit monitoring even when the automation is in use.

You don’t have to use 100% throttle to be “aggressive” when you’ve got 500+ horsepower... it looks like he held the throttle at about 50% for at last 15-20 seconds.  That’s like being flat-out in an older wrx for 15-20 seconds....

according to Tesla’s press release auto braking is disabled after 85mph. I agree if someone is driving that fast they sure as hell better be payng attention. https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/tesla_model_s_software_6_2.pdf 

Autopilot was not engaged remotely near this crash happening. The driver was 100% in control of the vehicle. I can be confident of this for a couple of important reasons. 1) Autopilot has a terminal maximum velocity of 90mph. Once you hit 90, AP will disengage. It simply won’t run run above this speed. This means no…

No disrespect sir, but the AP disengaged with an audile warning 40 seconds before impact. 40 seconds at 100 mph is 1.1 miles.

No. This driver wasn’t relying on Autopilot. He was testing the max speed on the car, risking life and jail time to do so. He was completely alert and aware of his reckless behavior.

Where do you see he was “flooring it”? The graph shows TPS starting at 40 and steadily climbed to go, and then “floored” at time of impact. This looks like somebody resting their foot on the throttle while zoned out or even asleep. Aggressive drivers don’t use steady state partial thottle.

40 seconds is not “seconds.” Without driver intervention in that 40 seconds, the car would have decelerated, not continued gaining speed. There is definitely some driver control during that 40 seconds, at least with respect to accelerating the car. Hell, he stays in his lane following the corner. Would the Tesla do…

That said, why on earth does the Tesla Software allow for AP to be engaged at 135mph?

Autopilot disengaged about 40 seconds prior to impact due to the Tesla issuing a Forward Collision Warning (FCW) chime which happened again about two seconds prior to impact.

40 seconds at 136 mph translates to just over 1.5 miles traveled. It didn’t detect an imminent impact and fail to prevent it. It issued a warning (unrelated to this eventual impact) and canceled, and this idiot driver continued accelerating and clipped the Honda traveling right in front of it. Autopilot ain’t perfect…

The driver was inattentive, but had their foot matted to the floor at over 120mph? You don’t just end up going 120+ out of “inattention.” That’s a deliberate choice.

Only Jalopnik could blame Tesla for a DRIVER driving at 130+mph. This has ZILCH to do with the car. The car did the correct thing and disengaged the self-driving when the driver was being an ass. AEB will NEVER stop a collision at those speeds. 

I’d love to pile on Tesla here, and blame their marketing gimmick nonsense Level 2 system.

The graph starts at 105 but that is only about 17 seconds before impact. Autopilot was disengaged 40 seconds before the collision. That is a really long time to mistake the brake pedal for the accelerator.

Am I missing something or does the article not really have anything to do with the crash? Yes L2 systems should be avoided for this exact reason, but in this particular case, AP is not involved at all and the driver had 40 seconds to react and not deliberately accelerate to well over 100mph. Autopilot caps you to…

Life comes at you pretty fast when you're homicidally stupid.

I never said you had to. They asked if it was on sale, and I told them that it was. Calm yoself.

I never said you had to. They asked if it was on sale, and I told them that it was. Calm yoself.

the 65" is currently on sale. MSRP is $2500, normally sells for around $2200, is currently $1850 on Amazon and Best Buy (and I imagine others)

the 65" is currently on sale. MSRP is $2500, normally sells for around $2200, is currently $1850 on Amazon and Best…