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Comment by ams6110 | Hacker News Reader

> Very glad the driver had 100% of their attention on the road at that moment.

Yes, and 100% is critical. That required pretty quick and smooth reactions. The car started to follow the right-hand lane, then suddenly re-centered on the barrier. The driver had about a second to see that and correct. That's just the sort of situation where even a slightly inattentive driver might panic and overcorrect, which could cause a spinout if the roads were wet or icy or cause a crash with parallel traffic.

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So your basically paying (A lot) of cash to beta test their software for them... at your own (Very personal) risk!

Not to mention the fact that, if they're software screws up and kills you, they'll rush to to Twitter in an attempt to smear you using personal data and deceptive statements.

And endanger others who have decided to opt-out of the beta test. Keep in mind that in any accident all bets are off with respect to the traffic around you, even if you ram into a stationary barrier you could easily rebound into other traffic.

Also, if something goes wrong it's your fault anyways because you're supposed to keep 100% of your attention on the road.

That's the best kind of small print. The kind that disclaims all liability no matter what. I really don't get why we accept this stuff. It's akin to driving without a license. After all, as long as a Tesla 'autopilot' can't take a driving test it has no business controlling cars.

I don't know why people use this thing. The cars are nice, and justify their purchase on their own, without this autopilot feature. But I don't think you can do good autopilot without lidar.

  People shouldn't use it.

I really don't think the cars are that nice... this is a side from the main issue here but the build quality is poor and the design is bland - both internally and externally (That massive big iPad like screen - yuck!).

The big Youtuber that rebuilds salvage Teslas made the point that almost every Tesla owning Youtuber has a video showing their car getting hauled away on a tow-truck. One of the possible reasons that Tesla service dept. doesn't provide maintenance history on salvage cars is because the amount of service would reflect poorly. It doesn't seem uncommon for a model S with 80,000 miles to have several door handle replacements, at least one whole drive unit replacement, battery contactor replacement, an infotainment system replacement, in addition to all the recall/redesigned components that are replaced before failure. I still think Tesla's are quite nice, but a bullet-proof Honda they are not.

Not just your own risk... There are other people on the road who share that risk. It makes me angry at Elon Musk himself. First he didn't sterilize that stupid thing he sent into interplanetary space. Now he's putting peoples lives at risk.

Well there's plenty of unsterilized stuff in space. The early space missions just dumped the bodily waste of the astronauts overboard.

Yeah, but it's coming back to Earth, where it came from. This is an object that could land on Mars or another planet.

Great measures have been taken in the past to ensure that other planets aren't contaminated before we've had a chance to understand their existing biology. Elon Musk is the kid who comes and knocks over some other kids' block tower for his own amusement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_protection

> First he didn't sterilize that stupid thing

Huh? Isn't it better that way, we might spread [simple] life to other planets. I'm completely serious, I don't understand what the concern is?

There may already be life on other planets. Whether or not it's simple is a short-sighted human judgement.

Look at the big picture. We risk denying these planets the ability to evolve in isolation. That is a decision that cannot be reversed. Do we really want to do that? Maybe so, but it ought to be a conversation. Great measures have been taken to reduce the risk of contaminating other planets with Earth based lifeforms. Then, this belligerent guy comes along and disregards all that.

> Whether or not it's simple is a short-sighted human judgement.

You realize I was talking about your "contamination" (e.g. bacterial organisms, microscopic lifeforms, etc)?

> We risk denying these planets the ability to evolve in isolation.

Seems like a fairly limited risk. It is more likely these planets have no form of life at all and that we'd seed their only life (if it could sustain there).

> Great measures have been taken to reduce the risk of contaminating other planets with Earth based lifeforms.

You're conflating craft that were designed to land on other planets and look for life on them, with a space craft.

Have to disagree with you there. It is in a fairly normal solar orbit. There are a shitload of dead 3rd stages and satellites in solar orbit. They were not sterilized. National space agencies have been launching things into earth escape velocities without sterile procedures for 40 years. If it were designed to land intact on Mars that is another story

> The driver had about a second to see that and correct.

And if there had been a crash, Tesla probably would have said that the driver had an unobstructed view of the barrier for several seconds before impact (conveniently omitting at what point AP started to swerve).

And don't forget pointing out that the driver forgot to use their blinker a week before the crash so clearly they just aren't a responsible driver.

From the OP's comments on Reddit - he said that it happens about 90% of the time on that stretch and that he has more footage of the same exact incident.

He was likely prepared for it, which kinda makes it even scarier in a way. An inattentive driver would have totally botched this.

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