Tesla's self-driving cars have been increasingly criticized by the public lately. There are cases when drivers, having completely entrusted the control to the robot, got into an accident. Of course, while this technology is far from ideal and it is worthwhile to understand that all responsibility in any case rests with the person. Nevertheless, there are many known cases when Tesla's autopilot saved drivers from serious accidents.
1. Sudden update
Last October, Brad King of Washham, North Carolina escaped heavy fines thanks to a new Tesla autopilot update. The fact is that the new firmware automatically added a DVR function, which helped the driver a lot on one of the autumn evenings.
Brad was driving on an unlit road when suddenly a car drove into the roadway without the headlights on. Collisions were inevitable. As it turned out, the perpetrator of the accident had no insurance, no driving license and lied in court about what really happened that day. Luckily for Brad, the new dash cam feature captured everything that happened.
2. Drove to the hospital
This amazing incident happened in 2017. Joshua Nelly from Missouri was safely rushed to the hospital in his own Tesla X. Joshua was returning home from his office when he unexpectedly suffered a pulmonary embolism. The owner of the car could not drive the electric car on his own and turned on the self-driving mode. For 32 kilometers, Tesla automatically moved along the highway and reached its destination in a short time. Who knows if the ambulance would have arrived on time.
3. Saved the sleeping driver
Last May, Tesla's autopilot saved the life of German music producer Anton Zaslavsky. After a hard day at work, Anton was driving home and fell asleep at the wheel. The car at this time was in semi-automatic mode. Despite the fact that the Tesla autopilot is not designed to transport sleeping people, it constantly monitors the driver's attention. According to Novate.ru, for these purposes, there are sensors in the dashboard of the electric car that track the breathing and facial expressions of drivers. If the system realizes that the driver may have fallen asleep, it starts to sound and visualize signals.
4. Helped to avoid road accidents
Last December, the driver managed to avoid a terrible accident thanks to Tesla's car assistant. On the evening of December 22, George Anderson was driving his Tesla Model X down one of Atlanta's busy highways when something went wrong. The car automatically changed lane when suddenly a car in front crashed into an SUV. The autopilot braked before the driver could react. The video from the video recorder shows that everything happened in just a second. No other person would have had time to react in such a short period of time.
5. Saved from a collision with a truck
Last April, a Tesla owner said the car had saved him from an imminent collision with a truck trailer. Recall that Tesla's autopilot has a whole range of active safety features that work even when the car is being controlled manually. The main ones are emergency braking and side collision avoidance. It was the second function that saved the driver from a collision with a truck, which intended to overtake him in the left lane. The truck drove out of the lane, and if the autopilot had not immediately reacted and turned to the right, the accident could not have been avoided.
If you are interested in the topic of self-driving cars, read also about how Elon Musk opened the first high-speed tunnel for cars near Los Angeles.