Tesla's Autopilot Deaths and the Truth About Self-Driving

Tesla calls it Autopilot. That name is misleading. People think the car drives itself. It does not. It is advanced cruise control. It keeps lanes. It maintains distance. But it misses stopped emergency vehicles. It fails in bad weather.

Multiple deaths have been linked to Autopilot. In each case, the driver was not paying attention. Tesla warns drivers to keep hands on the wheel. But humans are bad at monitoring automation. We trust it. Then we die.

Elon Musk promises full self-driving every year since 2016. It never arrives. Meanwhile, Waymo and Cruise are actually running driverless taxis in some cities. They use expensive LiDAR sensors. Tesla refuses LiDAR. They rely only on cameras. Most experts say that is impossible for full autonomy.

For beginners, do not buy a Tesla expecting to nap in the back seat. That is years away. Maybe decades. Treat Autopilot as a helper. Not a driver. Your life depends on it.