cross pond high tech

A British driver has pled guilty to dangerous driving after a fellow driver took video of him sitting in the passenger seat, while his Tesla S 60 drove on its own with Autopilot, according to BBC News (via Jalopnik).

Bhavesh Patel was spotted by a fellow driver sitting in the passenger seat while his Autopilot was engaged on the M1 near Hemel Hempstead on May 21st, 2017. The Hertfordshire Police note that the car was set to drive at 40 MPH, and that Patel had left the steering wheel and controls unattended, and that there was heavy traffic on the road at the time of the incident.

Patel has pled guilty to the offense, and has been banned from driving for 18 months, and will be required to pay a £1,800 fine, carry out 10 days rehabilitation, and to perform 100 hours of community service. Hertfordshire Police officers testified at his court hearing that he said that what he did was “silly,” but pointed to his vehicle’s “amazing” features when he was interviewed. He reportedly had owned the car for five months at the time of the incident.

Top misconceptions

1. Driver assistance systems will evolve gradually into fully autonomous cars
2. The first models of fully autonomous cars will be targeted to the consumer and will be available for purchase
3. It will take decades until most of the vehicles on the road are capable of autonomous driving
4. Self-driving cars are controlled by classical computer algorithms (if-then rules)
5. Public demonstrations of self-driving cars provide an indication of their capabilities
6. Self-driving cars need to make the right ethical judgements
7. To convince us that they are safe, self-driving cars must drive hundreds of millions of miles
8. Self-driving cars will increase congestion in cities