Companies oversell the self-driving capabilities of their cars, with horrific outcomes

In mid-February, Tesla announced the recall of over 350,000 vehicles — more than 20,000 in Canada — due to a problem with its “Full Self-Driving Capability” system. Of these, 273 crashes alone involved Tesla vehicles. While these numbers are far lower than those involving all road vehicles, they at least question these systems’ purported safety. Applying this approach to analyzing and understanding the Tesla crashes reveals that there are several issues contributing to these incidents. With the Tesla crashes, we are witnessing a push to introduce new technologies for no other reason than its availability, regardless of the impact.