WEBVTT - Robot People and Autopilots 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:12.959 Get technology with tech Stuff from stuff dot Com. Hey there, 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:15.840 and welcome to Tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:21.240 together once again reunited with Scott Benjamin who was joining 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:24.200 me today in the studio. Thanks Scott reunited. Isn't there 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:26.680 a song? Reunited? It feels so good? Yeah, that's it. Yeah, 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:28.800 that's the one. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:31.160 And we're going to tackle a couple of different stories 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:33.720 that have been in the news over the past several 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:36.640 weeks now as at the time we're recording this, obviously 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:39.279 the episode will publish a little bit later, but we 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:41.559 wanted to talk about some stuff that has to do 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:46.960 with artificial intelligence, with autonomy, with vehicles, and also just 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:51.680 a robots in general. So we're gonna start with probably 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:54.840 the more sobering of the two stories, the story about 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:59.760 Tesla Auto Pilot um and specifically the fatal accident that 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:03.680 have and on May seventh, two thousand sixteen, involving Joshua Brown, 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:06.640 And and what does that mean? What do we know 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:08.959 about the accident as of the recording of this show, 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:14.360 What does it mean for for autonomous vehicles? Why, why 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:18.399 does Tesla maintain that Tesla autopilot isn't autonomous. We're gonna 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:20.720 get into all those details, but first I just want 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:24.960 to give a quick kind of layout of the order 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:29.520 of events. So the accident happened on May seven, six 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:34.360 in Florida. UM Joshua Brown was in a vehicle Tesla 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:39.080 Model S that what had autopilot engaged, and I was 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:43.280 traveling eastward down the highway when a semi truck was 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:46.679 turning left. The semi truck was traveling westward down that 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:50.320 same highway, turning left to cross onto another street, which 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:54.560 meant that the semi truck's trailer was crossing the traffic 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:58.600 that Joshua's car or the direction that Joshua's car was 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:02.680 going in. UH. Neither the car nor Joshua appeared to 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:07.120 detect the trailer. They didn't see it, didn't react to it, 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:10.280 and so there was a collision. We'll get more into 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:13.880 more details about the collision a little bit, and UM 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:17.079 Mr Brown passed away due to that. He died from 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:23.720 his injuries. The Tesla actually released information to the National 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:28.079 Highway Traffic Safety Administration about a week and a half 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:32.400 after it happened, giving them the details of the accident. 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:35.600 UH just a couple of days later, they held a 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:38.720 big shareholder meeting that's gonna come into play a little bit. 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:44.200 And then it wasn't until June that Tesla posted a 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:51.120 blog that acknowledged and disclosed this accident. And so this 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:54.120 is kind of it's kind of a multi tiered thing 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:57.040 that we're gonna chat about, not just the technology, uh, 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:01.320 not just what kind of of effect is this going 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.760 to have on the on on driver assist systems and 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:09.840 and autonomous vehicles moving forward, but also the implications some 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:12.680 people have raised saying that perhaps Tesla was trying to 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:16.840 hide the fact that there was this accident in light 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:18.520 of the fact that we're going to have a shareholder 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.200 meeting and and offer more stocks. They raised like one 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:25.000 point four billion dollars in stocks. So we're gonna attack 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:29.720 all of that. So the start, Scott, how would you 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:34.920 describe Tesla autopilot? Tesla autopilot? Okay, so I guess you 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:37.320 can't call it autonomous, right, That's the first thing we 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:38.600 need to get out of the way. It's it's a 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.120 legality issue. And we've talked about this, I think on 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:44.320 other podcasts that I've been here for sure tech stuff 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.200 certainly on car stuff and the it's it's again it's 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:51.280 a legal issue because you can't say autonomous because that 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:53.760 indicates that there doesn't necessarily have to be a driver 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:56.960 in place behind the wheel. And again it's just a 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:59.480 it's a word thing. It's a word play thing right now, 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:05.280 because most major manufacturers have autonomous like systems in the works, 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:08.680 autopilot like systems in the works um or they already 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.240 have them implemented, but they have a strict rule that 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:13.440 a driver has to be you know, in the driver 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:16.760 position at all times, ready to take control at any time. 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:18.120 And some of them even say that you have to 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:21.479 have hands on the wheel, as did the test La situation. 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:25.599 Here the Tesla, when you agree to enter autopilot mode, 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:27.839 you you have to I don't know, if you click 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:30.239 on something on that giant screen that they have essentially 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.160 like in terms of service saying like you are acknowledging 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:36.880 that in order to have autopilot on, you are supposed 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:38.760 to keep your hands on the wheel as well as 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:44.320 maintain alertness to your surroundings, not just you know, not 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.280 just shut down and allow the card to take over. Okay, 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:48.880 we have more to say about that as we go 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:51.680 here too, because you'll find that there's a lot of 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:54.560 shenanigans that go along with with people in autopilot mode 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.559 that shouldn't be happening because of this terms. You know, this, 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:01.520 this term of agreement that you sign, and so Mr 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:04.760 Brown had agreed to that, and then we will later 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.200 find out that he was in a negligence of that. 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:09.560 And listen, I want to also get this out of 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:11.240 the way too, is that we were not here to 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.720 point fingers at the dead guy or any by any means. 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:18.200 But um, as we go through this and see if 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:20.760 you agree with this as we talk here, but um, 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:24.640 I really feel that Tesla is not necessarily in the 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:27.520 wrong here, right, and I don't I feel it's more 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:31.160 the fault of the driver himself than it is Tesla 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:33.320 by by all means. Right, Let's let me see if 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:35.560 you if you think this is fair. I would I 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:39.280 would say that over the last decade, really a couple 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:44.200 of decades, we've seen more automated systems or driver assist 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:48.840 systems come into play. Some are are pretty you know, 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.599 still rely entirely upon human input. Like I would argue 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:57.320 power steering falls into that kind of category. It's the 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:00.400 car itself is not taking over any steering in power steering. 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:04.719 But that's a driver assist feature. It's helping someone operate 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:08.080 a vehicle without having to do ridiculous amounts of turning 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:09.720 a wheel in order to actually do what you need 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:11.640 to do. Sure, we've seen so many of these in 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:13.839 the past, I mean in the recent past, I guess 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:16.719 with with lane keep systems. You know that that's part 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:19.320 of the autonomous system that we're talking or almost said, 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:23.320 the driver assist system talking about from Tesla, the autopilot um. 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:26.080 You know it. It maintains the lane, It maintains a 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:28.360 distance between the vehicle in front of it and uh 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:31.960 and and tries to keep that at a reasonable I 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:33.920 would believe that you would be able to set the 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:36.160 distance that you want, or maybe it doesn't based on 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:39.719 a calculation of your speed versus the distance it needs 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:41.960 to break right, like like that basic rule of thumb 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:44.320 that you should be able to count to three when 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.599 you see the vehicle ahead of you passes something like 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:50.000 a lamp. Yeah, and then you street lamp, you count 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:51.880 you know, one, one thousand, two and thousand or three, 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:54.919 you know, and there's a there's a just kind of 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:56.800 a general rule of thumb. As you said, you know 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:59.200 that that uh, you know, at this speed, you have 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:01.279 this amount of time time in order to react, and 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.480 that's just something that humans need. I suppose it's a 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:06.640 little faster. Of course for an autopilot system that can 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:08.960 it can do things a lot quicker, although it has 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:10.960 to do so in a way that's safe and isn't 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:13.640 going to injure a person. So in other words, like 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:19.119 technically you could have a a a computer system follow 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:21.560 a little closer to a car and be able to 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:26.680 react faster, but momentum is still a thing. And what 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:30.240 about the driver behind you? Exactly? Yeah, behind got the 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:32.480 human driver behind you, so they may not be able 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.560 to react that quickly. And you also have the issue 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:39.040 of when you come to a stop, you've got so 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.000 much mass, you've got so much momentum built up that 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.520 even if your car is capable coming to a stop 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:48.120 at that at that reduced distance between you and the 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:50.400 person in front of you, they're still going to be 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:55.720 a very measurable uh effect on the person sitting in 0:07:56.440 --> 0:08:00.600 that car. It's gonna you're gonna be jerked around a lot. Yeah, 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:03.480 and this wasn't necessarily the case with this crash. You 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:05.360 know it wasn't this is a truck. You have to 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:07.239 imagine what it would be like if a semi truck 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:09.520 was crossing your path in front of you, I mean 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.160 perpendicular to the road right, almost like you're coming up 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.520 to a crossroads and there's a semi truck going going 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.720 perpendicular ninety degrees from where you're going. Yeah, the cab 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:20.640 has passed in front of you. You're now at that 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:23.200 part of the trailer where there's nothing below it but 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:26.240 the cab or the trailers above you, and the rear 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:28.600 wheels have yet to cross the road. So that's the 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:32.040 position where this was. This was when Mr Brown went 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:36.400 underneath the trailer, and so you you know the you 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:39.760 you're thinking, well, how come he neither he nor the 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:43.880 car detected this. Well, there are a couple of different 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:45.880 things that people have said so far. One was that 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.480 the sky was brightly lit that day, that the trailer 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:53.000 itself was white, and therefore it was more difficult to 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:57.080 differentiate between the trailer and the sky. Uh So, from 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:01.679 just an optical standpoint like then the dual spectrum, it 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:04.720 was hard to see well for the computer to understand 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:06.840 that I mean, you would see a truck in front 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:08.240 of you if you had your eyes on the road. 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:10.000 That's That's the other part of this is that the 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:13.560 human element, I believe, and as we get as we 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:15.080 go through here, I think you're going to see more 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.040 and more that my my, my thoughts on this whole 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.440 thing are that he wasn't watching at all. I mean, 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:22.199 there was no there were no eyes up on the 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:24.839 road at all. This was completely an autopilot mode and 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:26.720 he was hands off for the whole thing. Because if 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:29.600 he were hands on, it is hard to imagine how 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.400 he could not have seen the truck simply because you're 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:36.280 talking about him traveling eastward. It was in the afternoon, 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:38.680 so the sun should be behind him, not in front 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:40.800 of him, so he shouldn't shouldn't have sun in his eyes. 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:43.040 But it's gonna be bright on the trailer, if it's 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:46.200 a white trailer, it's gonna be bright against that bright sky. 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:48.200 And I can see how that would be difficult to 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:51.559 differentiate between you know that in the sky for the computer, 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:53.959 I guess, you know, if there's no chrome trim or 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:57.360 anything that you know that makes a um some type 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.800 of delineation that says this is the beginning of another 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:01.840 chick and they can and then can detect it. It's 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:05.640 also moving all Another thing that this is all hinges 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.200 on is that there's an eyewitness report that came out 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.960 in early July on a site called Teslaaratti and it's 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:15.160 a it's kind of just a compliment compilation of Tesla news, 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:17.800 you know, of all all news, you know, SpaceX, Tesla Motors, 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.920 Investor News, etcetera. And one of the witnesses to this accident, 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:23.800 in addition to the truck driver, which we'll hear from 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:27.439 in just a minute, said that prior to this accident, 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.480 this is crazy, the Model S was on the same 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:32.880 road as this person, this this woman driver. She was 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:37.439 on us A in Florida, and the Model S on 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.520 on autopilot at that time, passed her while she was 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:43.760 driving at eighty five miles per hour. So he's going 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:46.640 in excessive eighty five miles per hour, where let's just 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:48.800 say it's it's a ballpark one hundred miles an hour. 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:51.600 Have you ever seen what happens to car when it 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.520 crashes a hundred miles per hour? It's it's devastating. I mean, 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:56.880 you've got to keep in mind that most crash tests 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.920 that are done are done at a much much lower speed, 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:05.320 and yet they're dramatic in the outcome. Yeah, you would 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:07.600 be shocked to see what kind of damage that happens. 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.400 And let's says, you know, a side impact collision, you know, 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:12.880 those those really dramatic ones where the whole the car 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:15.120 seems to bend in half in the car enters the 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:20.079 other vehicle. Practically that that's happening somewhere around thirty five 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:23.079 thirty thirty five miles per hour. This is this is 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:26.000 a car traveling at one hundred miles per hour, let's 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:28.520 say more than five to be fair, more than any 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:33.040 for sure. And uh and of course at that point 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.320 of the trailer which we're talking about it, what happened 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:37.320 was it sheared the roof off of the vehicle. And 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:40.120 I think we can all understand what that probably means 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:45.560 to the driver of that vehicle. It's horrific. So beyond that, 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:49.400 the car continued on, and it didn't continue on a long, 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.760 long distance. And I'm looking at a diagram that was 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:56.280 drawn up here of the crash investigation scene, and it's 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:58.760 not the scale or anything, but the car doesn't go 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:02.280 a whole lot farther in its in its own lane. 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:04.760 It did veer off the road, went through one fence 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:06.959 or went through a ditch, went through a fence, went 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:11.520 across the field, through another fence and into a pole, 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.000 so to ditch. Two fences and a pole, and that's 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:16.520 where it came to rest. Is After that it kind 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:19.559 of rotated to arrest. Um the truck. The driver of 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:22.560 the truck said that it all happened so fast that 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:24.559 by the time he didn't even I don't even know 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:26.880 if he felt the impact, of course, but by the 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:29.079 time he even checked his mirrors, the vehicle was already 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:31.840 beyond you know, the impact site. He couldn't he could 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:34.000 even pick it up. He couldn't spot it, um other 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:36.000 than looking, you know, I guess at this point he 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:38.120 had to look to his left to see it out 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.360 in the field somewhere. Um, it's moving, it's traveling that fast. 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:45.880 So there's this disconnect between what what happened in that 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:50.160 vehicle just seconds before the the the crash, the impact, 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:53.480 and what happened. And you know, I don't know if 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:56.480 I should say it that way. Maybe there's a I 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:58.200 guess just not enough information out there, like what was 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:01.440 happening in the car beforehand. It's not disconnected. It's just 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:03.679 we just need to know more information and we don't 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:06.200 quite yet. Yeah, the fact that you know, you had 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:10.720 you had different eyewitnesses saying that, like one saying that 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.800 there was a portable DVD player with a screen showing 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:17.320 a Harry Potter movie. That someone else said there was 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.160 a portable DVD player inside the car, but it wasn't 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:22.440 actually running at the time. Can I tell you something, 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:25.080 What's that The driver of the truck who went to 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:28.400 check on this driver out in the field as he approached, 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:30.840 he said that he did hear a Harry Potter movie playing, 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:32.960 but did not see it. But that's the way he 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:35.320 that's the only way that he was able to discern 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:36.840 that it was a Harry Potter movie. He could hear 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:39.280 the audio from that, because I guess it's and if 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:41.520 you saw the wreck, it's a mangled mess. It's it's 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:45.199 a it's a horrific car crash scene. Um. But he 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:46.960 was one of the first people on the scene, of course, 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:49.640 and he did, in fact here a Harry Potter movie playing. 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:53.760 So it appears, at least from the limited information that 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:58.079 we have it appears that that this was a case 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:02.120 where the person behind the wheel was not following the 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:06.040 directions stated specifically under engaging the autopilot that you you know, 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:08.840 need to have your full attention on the road and 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:13.160 have been ready to take over. Um, that's what it 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:16.800 looks like. Also, we should say that, yes, the optical 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:19.720 camera system failed in that it did not recognize the 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:21.880 fact that there was a truck crossing its path, which 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.480 is that's pretty dramatic. But some people have said, well 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:29.680 aren't there backups, like beyond optical, wasn't their radar? Well, yeah, 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:34.160 and as radar. Here's the thing, though, the trailer is 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:36.960 off the ground right, it's it's above the ground because 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:41.000 you've got that space between you know, where the chassis 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:45.120 is and the trailer a part. And the problem is 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:49.080 that the radar system can misinterpret that to be an 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.920 overhead sign because it's it's detecting a surface, a flat 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:58.880 surface that's above the ground. And Tesla autopilot essentially ignores 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:01.000 those because if it did, and every time we went 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:04.160 down the highway, your car would start to break every 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:07.160 time you start to approach an overhead sign. If it 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:10.640 has identified that as a potential collision could be a 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:13.160 real problem. Yeah, it could mean that you're actually causing 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:16.320 accidents because you're you're hitting the brake on a highway 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:20.520 when everything is perfectly fine. Uh So, I mean you 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.680 could argue that maybe this this was at least partly 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:26.640 a failure of technology in the sense that the optical 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:30.200 cameras did not pick up the truck. Or it could 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:32.280 be that the car was just traveling so fast that 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:36.840 even even at that advanced speed that computers can react to, 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:41.360 it would not have been able to react fast enough 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:44.040 at detecting the truck and being able to do anything 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:46.080 about it. Now you're hitting out. Something that I wanted 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:48.120 to to make clear here too, is that when we 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:51.840 first talked about this, when we first heard about this ourselves, 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:55.840 I have thought that I had imagined that this vehicle 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:58.400 continued on down the road and you know, the autopilot 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:00.960 remain engaged, and um, you know, it was it was 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:04.400 like it was almost like a ghost car, ghost ship 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:06.280 traveling down the road with no one, no one at 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:10.040 the wheel of course, And um, I thought I thought 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:12.240 it was a much greater distance that had traveled after 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:14.240 the accident. But now that I'm hearing that. You know, 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:16.360 he's traveling at such a high rate of speed. And 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:18.000 I look at this diagram now, I know it's not 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:20.800 to scale, but it's really if if it's anywhere close 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:23.200 to the way it's drawn here. Um, you know, it's 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:25.240 not like it's five miles down the road. It's right 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:27.720 there where this car came to rest. If he's traveling 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:30.360 that quickly and something like the top is being sheered 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:33.360 off the car in the grand scheme of things that 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.200 it's not like a full on impact into a wall 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:37.840 or anything that's that's it's relatively easy to take the 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:39.760 top off of the vehicle. It's mostly glass and a 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:42.920 few beams. That's it quickly handled by you know that 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:45.720 type of speed. So for it to just travel that 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:48.720 far on its own momentum, it's own you know, the 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:52.120 chared over velocity. I guess, um, I could see a 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:54.120 car taking a quarter mile to come to arrest from 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.960 something that that uh, that fast and not quite as 0:16:57.960 --> 0:16:59.960 abrupt as a as a as a dead on him 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:05.800 packed sure, and you know it's I think we do 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:11.040 have to stress again. Tesla has always maintained that autopilot 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:15.480 is really a collection of integrated driver assist systems that 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:19.600 together make it safer to operate a vehicle, and they 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:22.400 have data to back that up. The big, the big 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:26.320 point that they like to mention is the number of 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:32.800 miles driven by vehicles in autopilot mode without a fatality. 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:36.560 This was the first fatality of anyone driving a Tesla 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:41.639 vehicle in autopilot mode, and they say that the cars 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:44.800 had accumulated something like a hundred thirty million miles of 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:49.600 travel without having a fatality, which is above average. Right, Yeah, 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:52.720 because in the United States, again, according to Tesla, they 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:56.320 cited a number saying that it's nine million miles for 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:59.880 every particular model of car. That's the that's the average, 0:17:59.880 --> 0:18:04.919 is that every nine million miles driven by a vehicle, 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:07.320 there's a fatality. Yeah. That's in the US, the US. 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:11.240 Globally it's different, Yes, sixty it's it's it's sixty million 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:14.160 miles globally, which is the global numbers. I've got global 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:16.800 numbers if you want to hear. Yeah, they're huge. Alright. 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:21.760 So globally auto related deaths per year, one point three 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:25.439 million people died per year in auto related deaths. And 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:28.680 that's an It says an average of about it's just 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:32.080 just under thirty three hundred deaths every single day from 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:35.639 auto related deaths. Now in the United States, it's significantly less, 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.360 but it's still a high number. Um. It is it's 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:41.359 estimated in we still have estimate numbers. I think the 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.960 latest year for concrete numbers is probably twenty fourteen or 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:48.520 thirteen even um it's estimated that thirty eight thousand, three 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:50.800 hundred people are killed every year in the United States 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:53.399 alone on the roads, and that's about an average of 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:56.440 a hundred and five per day. So this is one 0:18:56.480 --> 0:19:01.120 accident that's happened with autopilot, and it gets so much attention, 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:03.280 it's so much, So much focus has put on this 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:07.680 one accident because of the autopilot element. That's that's been 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:10.480 um you know, put out there into the media, and 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:12.399 a lot of people are of course focused on that 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:15.560 one thing. And I would guess that Elon Musk is uh, 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:17.640 you know, kind of scratched his head saying like, well, 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:20.840 this statistically it's about to happen. I mean, of course, 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:22.399 we don't want a car that is going to have 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:25.240 this occur. We don't want it to happen again ever, 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:29.879 but statistically it's going to happen, and and accidents are inevitable, inevitable, 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:32.840 and so our fatalities. There's just there's no way to 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:36.959 create a one death proof vehicle. You can't do it. 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:39.840 There's always gonna be some wild card that you just 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:42.520 can't account for. You can't there's no way to anticipate 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:45.520 every potential scenario. And in fact, that is an important 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:50.600 thing to point out, is that this this situation, that uh, 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:55.119 this tragic situation was kind of the perfect storm of 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:59.359 elements for this accident to have happened. It should in 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:01.560 most case, it should not have happened. And in fact, 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:06.399 you know, people have criticized tesla Um. Some of the 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:11.760 journalists have criticized tesla for uh not just for the 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.239 the fact that autopilot appears to have played a part 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:16.960 in a fatal accident, never mind the fact that there 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:19.280 so many other fatal accidents happening with so many other 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:24.040 vehicles that uh, you know that well, they don't garner 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:26.600 the attention because this one, because it's not as novel 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:30.720 an idea as autopilots as the first. But not only 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:33.640 did they they criticize them for that, but also and 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:36.200 I can understand this as well, the fact that Tesla 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.480 did not disclose the accident until after it had had 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:42.119 this shareholder meeting where it had offered more stock and 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:46.080 made more money. Uh. The company's response was that the 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:49.600 accidents not material to Tesla's business and in fact, you 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:53.199 would never expect other automakers to have to do the 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:57.600 same thing. It's bad optics, you know, it doesn't look good. 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:02.520 But there's also you know, again there's no precedent for 0:21:02.560 --> 0:21:04.760 this by any this is the first time this has happened, 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:08.640 which automatically means that there's definitely going to be more 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:13.720 interest anyway. So I given the fact that it is autopilot, 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:16.560 I lean a little more toward it might have been 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:19.280 better for Tesla to get ahead of this rather than 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:23.320 to talk about it a month more than a month afterward, 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:26.600 but with a very logical explanation of why it happened 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:30.080 and that likely will happen again. It's just this is 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:32.359