To demonstrate that Tesla’s autonomous driving (FSD) does not crush children, as some try to make it believe, fans of the brand are asking parents to “loan” their children to prove it.
How do we arrive at a ludicrous situation where Tesla fan earnestly asks parents on Twitter to ‘loan’ their child, to prove that their self-driving Tesla won’t crush them? Apparently, in the United States, the idea divides. Some of the brand’s fans have such confidence in the Full Self-Driving developed by Tesla that they are ready to try the experiment, with the risks that entails. This is quite worrying.
How did we get to this situation?
It was a first TV campaign video, broadcast on August 9, 2022 and then taken up by certain media, which made Tesla’s users of autonomous driving, called Full Self-Driving, react. This video showed that despite several attempts, the dummy representing a child was systematically hit by a Tesla with the autonomous driving engaged. This demonstration immediately raised concerns about the dangerousness of autonomous driving, one more to add to the long list of criticisms made of autopilot and Full Self-Driving.
The most frequent users of the FSD system quickly protested against this video, considered fake news, and set out to prove that autonomous driving detected pedestrians, including children, very well in different configurations.
They started showing, with a cardboard silhouette, that the Tesla slowed down when it detected the obstacle. They also filmed other scenes of everyday life in the traffic of the streets of San Franciscopublished on August 10, validating that the car detected and slowed down well in the presence of a possible danger coming from a moving pedestrian.
And, to go even further in the demonstration, by the absurd, they said to themselves that it would be necessary to test with real children. So they made an announcement on Twitter.
Tests that prove nothing except disturbing blindness to Tesla
Those who follow social networks, forums and other media will have already observed that by criticizing Tesla, one exposes oneself to the unleashing of the passion of the brand’s fans. This is not reserved for Tesla, but the enthusiasm of some is still very visible and sometimes even very worrying.
The fact that a Tesla stops well, by detecting a child when FSD autonomous driving is engaged, does not mean that in 100% of situations, this will be the case. Need we remind you that it still happens that the Tesla does not spot certain much larger and much less mobile obstacles? There are, however, many test videos of Full Self-Driving autonomous driving, in which we see the owner having to regain control.
The system has evolved a lot since it was put into service, but it is not free from faults, especially in environments where the car has to coexist with a lot of elements to analyze.
Two camps oppose each other, between anti-FSD, who want the system banned, and pro-FSD, ready to do anything to make people believe that the system is perfect. The truth certainly lies between the two. Let’s just hope the pro-FSDs, in their quest to prove the system’s effectiveness, don’t end up creating drama out of overconfidence in the technology.