Tesla's Full Self-Driving mode has scuffed the rims of at least one Model Y, according to Torque News.
What's happening?
Model Y owner Sergey Bort posted on Facebook about his unfortunate incident.
In short, his 20-inch rims were scuffed when he set his car to automatically park next to a curb.
Parallel parking is one of many autonomous driving options available in Tesla vehicles. Standard autopilot keeps the car in the lane at a set speed and follows the flow of traffic. Full Self-Driving includes the autoparking feature used by Bort, automatic lane changing based on navigation directions, and remotely summoning the car from simple or complex parking situations.
This feature also includes supervised auto-steering on city streets with signage and light awareness. Tesla dedicates significant work to improving the reliability of self-driving capabilities. It does this by capturing loads of live driving data and improving its prediction models as a result. Over time, the live autopilot service should improve because of new training data.
CEO Elon Musk has been hoping that autonomous driving could become reliable enough that Teslas could act as taxis, earning passive revenue for owners, but the vehicles have come up short versus competitors. Tesla's Full Self-Driving has caused dramatic mishaps in other situations.
Why is self-driving important?
Autonomous driving has been a headline feature of Tesla vehicles for years now, but poor outcomes like this deter potential buyers from springing for an environmentally friendly electric vehicle.
This is unfortunate, considering light-duty vehicles generate a significant amount of atmospheric pollution. Even when taking into account manufacturing pollution, EVs come out ahead of gas cars.
Reducing harmful carbon pollution is vitally important as destructive weather patterns like flooding and droughts are on the rise. Burning gas has significant health costs for users, but issues like rising sea levels caused by melting ice caps pose long-term danger. The more gas cars we can replace with EVs, the more we can tamp down these negative trends.
What's being done about self-driving?
Facebook commenters were clear in their thoughts about autopilot after hearing about Bort's scuffed Model Y hubcaps.
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Would you trust a self-driving car to take you to work every day? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. |
For sure 👍 "Yeah. I don't auto park if it's next to a curb. I don't trust it. I only auto park in parking spaces. Like in a mall etc. never next to a curb," said one user.
"I've always said the self driving/ self parking is like allowing a 14 year old to drive your car," said another.
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