Experts ‘Warn’ Of Serious Consequences As Tesla Recalls Cars For ‘Fundamental’ Flaw!

On 17th February, an engineering professor's warning shocked self-driving technology lovers! Missy Cummings, an engineering professor at George Mason University and former safety advisor at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), told the New York Times, "People can get comfortable enough in a self-driving car that they start over trusting the technology." She further warned that drivers of self-driving cars become negligent behind an autonomous car's wheel and put themselves at risk.

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What's even more troubling is that more and more companies are putting their self-driving vehicle models on the road. According to a report, the number of cars globally with autonomous driving characteristics is anticipated to reach 62.4 million by 2030. Companies such as Uber, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and General Motors will be launching their own self-driving concepts. Experts alarm that some of these cars may harm drivers more than good. Showing her concern on the same, Missy Cummings stated, "Car companies—meaning Tesla and others—are marketing this as a hands-free technology. That is a nightmare."

Another road safety advocate, Ralph Nader, has made a similar plea for regulators to get more involved. He has also been critical of Tesla and unregulated autonomous cars. In one of his statements, he expressed, "I am calling on federal regulators to act immediately to prevent the growing deaths and injuries from Tesla man slaughtering crashes with this technology."

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On the other hand, as per one of the recent reports, Tesla instructed the company this week that clients had filed guarantee claims meeting the conditions highlighted by NHTSA on no less than 18 events between spring 2019 and fall 2022. On 17th February, Elon Musk took to Twitter and tweeted "that utilizing the phrase "recall" to explain the replace "is anachronistic and just flat wrong!" Also, in one of the earlier interviews, the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, emphasized that refining self-driving will be the next big target at Tesla. In this interview from last June, Musk stated, "The overwhelming focus is solving full self-driving. That's essential, and that's the difference between Tesla being worth a lot of money and being worth basically zero.

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Tesla and all the prominent players amassing into the self-driving car space will have to move more cautiously if experts like Cummings and Ralph Nader keep questioning the 'safety' of self-driving cars. Suppose these experts successfully convince the government to put more regulations on manufacturing and testing autonomous vehicles. In that case, leading brands to up their game will be a real challenge.

What are your thoughts on this whole story? Do you think such warnings will persuade big names like Tesla to refine and focus on the safety aspect of autonomous cars? Let us know your views in the comments section.

First published on Mon, Feb 20, 2023

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Self-driving Cars Self-driving Technology Elon Musk Tesla Missy Cummings Ralph Nader

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Experts ‘Warn’ Of Serious Consequences As Tesla Recalls Cars For ‘Fundamental’ Flaw!

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