It’s hard to be Tesla. In a world where cars become electric, just as the company initially intended when its mission began 18 years ago, Tesla is currently the best dog. Every car company in the world is cutting its heels in an attempt to catch up with Elon Musk’s car business. Recent developments, however, have inspired me to look at a different kind of competition facing Tesla, something that feels somewhat unfair in the grand scheme of things. Unfortunately, it is not from another car company, it comes from federal investigators and Tesla skeptics who are still exacerbating the company’s accidents, all because there is a possibility that a car involved in an accident may be on Autopilot worked.
Earlier this week, a Model Y was involved in an accident in Michigan. What appeared to be a case of reckless driving was initially blamed for the possibility of Autopilot by mainstream media sources. Unfortunately, their credibility with respect to Tesla vehicles is still being undermined as they trust long-term reliability in the field of electric vehicles for short-term viewers. A Tesla was indeed in an accident in Detroit, and yes, the NHTSA investigated it. There is no reason to go beyond that.
Unfortunately, Tesla’s implementation of Autopilot and Full Self-Driving endangered the company for these kinds of stories. Every time a Tesla crashes, the first thing that is planted in people’s minds is the possibility that the car is using the semi-autonomous driving functions. Why? People are still responsible for driving the car, even if the vehicle uses the latest technology. It is by no means the car’s fault if the driver is still responsible for the eventual operation of the vehicle. It’s like blaming a fork for obesity, in my eyes.
Although it is unfortunate that there are deaths due to Autopilot, there are cases where serious negligence on the part of the driver is the cause of an accident. In a case where speed and reckless driving are really the factor, investigators should clear up immediately. Perhaps Tesla can provide the authorities with some kind of system of information where officers can give the VIN of a particular vehicle, and Tesla can immediately determine if the car is working using its driver assistance functions. There is, of course, a better way. But in the short term, especially in the early days of the FSD Beta, the credibility of the vehicle systems is extremely important for future implementation.
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Statistically, Tesla vehicles are much safer to start with than human drivers. Recent Q4 2020 safety report statistics from Tesla show that one accident occurred every 3.45 million miles with Autopilot. The national average is 484,000 miles. Is not that enough to prove that Autopilot is a better option than human management? By the way, it just gets more accurate and precise with every mile driven thanks to Neural Networks that obtain new data.
The exposure Tesla receives after one of these tragic accidents is probably the most frustrating. Immediately people draw conclusions and assume that the car was responsible for the problems. This is interesting though, because I can never remember a single case of media jumping through SuperCruise or any of the many other driver assistance systems that are on the market today. I’m sure there was coverage, and I just can not remember that there was a national headline like Tesla on a regular basis.
In all honesty, it’s just extremely frustrating to know that there is so much focus on Tesla’s shortcomings instead of its broad successes. I’m an investor in TSLA, but I’m also sometimes critical of the company, and I believe it’s because of my interest. There are times I would do otherwise. I was happy about my disgust because I told no holders of Model Y LR RWD bookings that their cars would not be made. I’m upset because there’s relatively no communication with holders of Model S Plaid bookings regarding their steering wheels. I’m not a fan that we’ve been told on numerous occasions that the production of Semi / Roadster is imminent, but we’m still sitting here with none of the vehicles. I have the bottlenecks, but I think those things just frustrated me personally.
I’m glad Tesla is spending $ 0 on advertising. The newspapers and media do not earn Teslas money. It is better used to grow the business and to use things like building the next generation of factories. Ford and GM alone will spend more than $ 5 billion on US advertising this year. The prejudice is clear and money speaks.
– Sawyer Merritt @ (@SawyerMerritt) 17 March 2021
However, I’m also going to admit if things are just unfair, and Tesla is the victim of it on so many occasions. I do not know if this has to do with oil money lying in MSM’s pocket, or if it’s just an attempt to derail a business that has really disrupted the automotive industry. I will not speculate. There is, of course, a reason for the investigations that may be beneficial. It can only be an attempt to learn from Tesla’s mistakes and pass them on for future cases. Unfortunately, there will be more accidents with self-driving software, and that goes far beyond Tesla. However, Tesla is the only company with a robust self-management program, so the microscope sometimes has to be almost on them, but this is where this situation gets really tough.
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