New York Times on Autopilot

Source: Inside Tesla: How Elon Musk Pushed His Vision for Autopilot - The New York Times

With 57,796 miles on a 2019 Tesla Model 3, I paid extra for Autopilot and now it is standard. The majority of those miles on Autopilot, the dozens of variation. A transitory medical issue led to Autopilot keeping the car safely in lane and speed … it paid for itself that day!

I will not buy a car lacking Tesla’s Autopilot performance. That other EV vendors charge extra for their safety packages suggests a lack of commitment to customer safety (or crappy package.)

I have just over a week of Full Self Driving BETA experience but it is the “E-ticket” ride. Traffic light, Stop, and Yield sign performance is much improved. There are rough edges, like multiple lane left turns (I always take over.) But like Autopilot, it handles more than 95% of the dumber yet dangerous driving tasks.

What the lazy New York Times reporters, Cade Metz and Neal E. Boudette failed to do is report the Tesla Autopilot accident rate. This is what Tesla reports. The NHTSA holds the raw data yet these reporters could not ask NHTSA for the relevant statistics. Accident rates is the bottom line and they missed it.

Bob Wilson