British research center Thatcham Research has presented a video showing one of the possible accident scenarios involving an electric liftback Tesla Model S.
At the test site in Upper Heyford, located near Oxford, the organization's specialists demonstrated how the car in Autopilot mode successfully brakes in front of a stationary obstacle. Then the experiment conditions were changed: the Tesla follows a car ahead that suddenly changes lanes, revealing a stationary car mock-up ahead. As it turned out, such a sudden change in the environment comes as a surprise to the Autopilot system, and it can no longer prevent a collision.
The reason for such tests, of course, was the incidents with "autonomous" Tesla electric cars, which recently led to tragic consequences. In addition, consumer rights activists insist on abandoning the word "autopilot" in marketing materials. Thatcham Research staff hold the same position: names such as Autopilot or ProPilot create excessive faith in the car's capabilities among drivers. The British propose to completely remove the term "autonomous" from use and replace it with "car with assistants," since truly driverless vehicles do not exist on roads today, and their appearance is expected only in the distant future.
