Latest news with #SelfDriving
Al Arabiya
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Al Arabiya
Tesla's Autopilot system is in the spotlight at a Miami trial over a student killed while stargazing
A rare trial against Elon Musk's car company began Monday in Miami, where a jury will decide if it is partly to blame for the death of a stargazing university student after a runaway Tesla sent her flying 75 feet through the air and severely injured her boyfriend. Lawyers for the plaintiff argue that Tesla's driver-assistance feature called Autopilot should have warned the driver and braked when his Model S sedan blew through flashing red lights, a stop sign, and a T-intersection at nearly 70 miles an hour in the April 2019 crash. Tesla lays the blame solely on the driver, who was reaching for a dropped cell phone. 'The evidence clearly shows that this crash had nothing to do with Tesla's Autopilot technology,' Tesla said in a statement. 'Instead, like so many unfortunate accidents since cellphones were invented, this was caused by a distracted driver.' The driver, George McGee, was sued separately by the plaintiffs. That case was settled. A judgement against Tesla could be especially damaging as the company works to convince the public its self-driving technology is safe during a planned rollout of hundreds of thousands of Tesla robotaxis on US roads by the end of next year. A jury trial is rare for the company, which often settles lawsuits, and this one is rarer yet because a judge recently ruled that the family of the stricken Naibel Benavides Leon can argue for punitive damages. The judge, Beth Bloom of the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, issued a partial summary judgement last month throwing out charges of defective manufacturing and negligent misrepresentation against Tesla. But she also ruled plaintiffs could argue other claims that would make the company liable and ask for punitive damages, which could prove costly. 'A reasonable jury could find that Tesla acted in reckless disregard of human life for the sake of developing their product and maximizing profit,' Bloom said in a filing. The 2021 lawsuit alleges the driver relied on Autopilot to reduce speed or come to a stop when it detected objects in its way, including a parked Chevrolet Tahoe that Benavides and her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, had gotten out of near Key West, Florida, to look up at the sky. The Tesla rammed the Tahoe at highway speeds, causing it to rotate and slam into Benavides, tossing her into a wooded area and killing her. In legal documents, Tesla denied nearly all of the lawsuit's allegations and said it expects that consumers will follow warnings in the vehicle and instructions in the owner's manual, as well as comply with driving laws. Tesla warns owners in manuals that its cars cannot drive themselves and they need to be ready to intervene at all times.
Associated Press
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Associated Press
Tesla's Autopilot system is in the spotlight at a Miami trial over a student killed while stargazing
NEW YORK (AP) — A rare trial against Elon Musk's car company began Monday in Miami where a jury will decide if it is partly to blame for the death of a stargazing university student after a runaway Tesla sent her flying 75 feet through the air and severely injured her boyfriend. Lawyers for the plaintiff argue that Tesla's driver-assistance feature called Autopilot should have warned the driver and braked when his Model S sedan blew through flashing red lights, a stop sign and a T-intersection at nearly 70 miles an hour in the April 2019 crash. Tesla lays the blame solely on the driver, who was reaching for a dropped cell phone. 'The evidence clearly shows that this crash had nothing to do with Tesla's Autopilot technology,' Tesla said in a statement. 'Instead, like so many unfortunate accidents since cellphones were invented, this was caused by a distracted driver.' The driver, George McGee, was sued separately by the plaintiffs. That case was settled. A judgement against Tesla could be especially damaging as the company works to convince the public its self-driving technology is safe during a planned rollout of hundreds of thousands of Tesla robotaxis on U.S. roads by the end of next year. A jury trial is rare for the company, which often settles lawsuits, and this one is rarer yet because a judge recently ruled that the family of the stricken Naibel Benavides Leon can argue for punitive damages. The judge, Beth Bloom of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, issued a partial summary judgement last month, throwing out charges of defective manufacturing and negligent misrepresentation against Tesla. But she also ruled plaintiffs could argue other claims that would make the company liable and ask for punitive damages, which could prove costly. 'A reasonable jury could find that Tesla acted in reckless disregard of human life for the sake of developing their product and maximizing profit,' Bloom said in a filing. The 2021 lawsuit alleges the driver relied on Autopilot to reduce speed or come to a stop when it detected objects in its way, including a parked Chevrolet Tahoe that Benavides and her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, had gotten out of near Key West, Florida, to look up at the sky. The Tesla rammed the Tahoe at highway speeds, causing it to rotate and slam into Benavides, tossing her into a wooded area and killing her. In legal documents, Tesla denied nearly all of the lawsuit's allegations and said it expects that consumers will follow warnings in the vehicle and instructions in the owners' manual, as well as comply with driving laws. Tesla warns owners in manuals that its cars cannot drive themselves and they need to be ready to intervene at all times. —— Former AP auto writer Krisher reported from Detroit.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Tesla Fans Furious at Video of Tesla Crashing Into Wall Painted Like Road
YouTuber and former NASA engineer Mark Rober has kicked the hornet's nest with his latest video. In the piece — titled "Can You Fool a Self Driving Car?" — Rober found that a Tesla car on Autopilot was fooled by a Wile E. Coyote-style wall painted to look like the road ahead of it, with the electric vehicle plowing right through it instead of stopping. The footage was damning enough, with slow-motion clips showing the car not only crashing through the styrofoam wall but also a mannequin of a child. The Tesla was also fooled by simulated rain and fog. A separate test vehicle, a Luminar tech-equipped Lexus SUV, aced the tests. The stunt was meant to demonstrate the shortcomings of relying entirely on cameras — rather than the LIDAR and radar systems used by brands and autonomous vehicle makers other than Tesla. "I can definitively say for the first time in the history of the world, Tesla's optical camera system would absolutely smash through a fake wall without even a slight tap on the brakes," Rober said in the video. But Tesla's fanboys have since cried foul, arguing that the EV maker could even sue Rober for "false advertising/misleading an audience," according to YouTuber Kevin "Meet Kevin" Paffrath. In a response video posted to Tesla CEO Elon Musk's X-formerly-Twitter, Paffrath argued that Rober had disengaged Autopilot right before crashing into the fake wall. Paffrath went as far as to allege that Rober was being paid by Luminar, the LIDAR tech company that outfitted the SUV that went head-to-head with the Tesla. Other users on X argued that Rober should've used Tesla's infamous Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature, which costs a whopping $8,000 on top of the cost of the vehicle. In a separate post seemingly responding to the allegations, Rober shared the "raw footage of my Tesla going through the wall." "Not sure why it disengages 17 frames before hitting the wall but my feet weren't touching the brake or gas," he added. In other words, is this really a smoking gun — or did the Autopilot disengage by itself, sending the Tesla plowing right through the wall while under "human" control? As Electrek points out, Autopilot has a well-documented tendency to disengage right before a crash. Regulators have previously found that the advanced driver assistance software shuts off a fraction of a second before making impact. It's a highly questionable approach that has raised concerns over Tesla trying to evade guilt by automatically turning off any possibly incriminating driver assistance features before a crash. Put simply, instead of taking down Rober's purportedly anti-Musk hit piece, Paffrath inadvertently highlighted Tesla's shady practices. Tesla has already been extremely reluctant about handing over crash data, especially when it comes to its infamous "Full Self-Driving" feature, duking it out with the California Department of Motor Vehicles in 2023. Tesla has also gone after crash data collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The EV maker reportedly asked the regulator to redact information about whether its Autopilot or FSD software was used during every single documented crash since 2021. In short, Rober's latest video still points out a glaring shortcoming when it comes to Tesla's safety features — no matter how unhappy it makes Tesla fanboys. More on the video: Man Tests If Tesla Autopilot Will Crash Into Wall Painted to Look Like Road
CNN
28-01-2025
- Automotive
- CNN
Telsa just had its worst sales year ever. But the stock has had a great run
Tesla will likely report thinner profit margins in its quarterly and full-year results Wednesday, a result of its first drop in annual sales in its history last year and a price war in the EV sector from increased competition. But the company's large swaths of investors seem more focused on CEO Elon Musk's bromance with President Donald Trump than the troubling noises coming from the car company behind Musk's fortune. Shares of Tesla are up 57% since the close of trading on Election Day — even with some of the company's troubles, which include a change in federal emission regulations that could reduce the billions of dollars it gets from the sale of regulatory credits, and increased competition for electric car buyers. Tesla also nearly lost its title as the world's largest maker of EVs to Chinese automaker BYD at the end of last year, even though BYD has yet to enter the US market. But with the growing sales of EVs in China, Tesla seems likely to lose that title this year, especially if its sales continue to decline. But Musk's close connection to Trump has investors hoping that the new administration will clear the way for some of his grand plans, including approval of true self-driving cars that don't have accelerator or brake pedals or steering wheels, which Musk has promised for years. Aside from regulations, however, Tesla's technology — including 'Full Self Driving,' or FSD — has not lived up to Musk's claims and promises in the past, and has faced investigations into its safety by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The current version of FSD requires a person to be in the driver's seat, ready to take control of the car should a problem arise. Musk insists, however, that truly driverless 'Cybercab' robotaxis from Tesla will be available by 2026 and that its service will make the company by far the most valuable in the world. While even Musk admits 'I tend to be a little optimistic with time frames,' he also said that only regulatory hurdles are keeping keep his next generation of self-driving robotaxis from being a reality soon. There are analysts who agree with his view. 'I think the Trump tailwind is just starting for Musk and Tesla, and the value of autonomous vehicles and FSD is going to be unleashed,' said Dan Ives, analyst with Wedbush Securities and a Tesla bull. 'In our view Tesla continues to be the most undervalued AI play in the market.' But there are still Tesla bears who don't believe that autonomous driving is as close as Musk promises. They also say that the softening growth in the American electric vehicle market is a major problem for the company. Shares of Tesla have lost 17% of their value since their peak a month ago, despite still being far above the pre-election price. Gordon Johnson, an analyst who is one of the most vocal critics of Tesla, says the controversy surrounding Musk, including his support for Trump and far-right political parties in Germany and the UK, is hurting demand for Tesla cars among liberal American and European buyers who are more inclined to spend the money on an EV. 'I think it's hurting Tesla tremendously. He's gone full MAGA,' said Johnson. 'Many Tesla buyers won't consider buying a Tesla again.' Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term vowing to end tougher emission standards put in place during the Biden administration. Those rules didn't just govern what came out of a gasoline engine's tailpipe. They also enabled makers of cars that polluted too much to buy 'regulatory credits' from manufacturers of zero-emissions cars, like Tesla, to bring themselves into compliance. Tesla is by far the greatest beneficiary of those purchases: It reported $2 billion in credit sales in the first nine months of 2024. Although some of those credits come from automakers complying with state regulations, rather than federal regulations, Trump has also vowed to block those tougher state emission rules, although a court fight over such a move is virtually certain. Investors will be looking for guidance from Musk and Tesla on Wednesday on the future of those credit sales. Trump has also vowed to eliminate a $7,500 tax credit to EV buyers, a move that could further cripple the EV market in the United States. Automakers would likely further cut the price of EVs to make them more competitive with gasoline-powered cars. It's once again not clear when such a move would take effect. But Musk is on record saying he approves of removing what he called a 'subsidy' for EV sales. Some analysts argue that legacy automakers — which are losing money on all their EVs, largely due to startup development costs — are more likely to pull back on their EV production and offerings altogether, and thus provide less competition for Tesla. The end of the credit 'will widen Tesla's competitive moat by making competing EV models even more uneconomic, as we believe TSLA is the only profitable manufacturer of EVs,' wrote Garrett Nelson, analyst for CFRA Research, in a note to clients the day after the election. 'For these reasons, we now view Tesla shares as deserving of higher multiples, but acknowledge challenges in the near term.' But Johnson said the loss of the EV tax credit will make it more difficult for Tesla's cars to compete with gasoline-powered cars. And the company already has more capacity to build cars than it has buyers. 'It's a huge negative for Tesla,' Johnson said. 'They have a demand problem. They can't sell out their existing capacity. Nine out of 10 car buyers are choosing gasoline-powered cars, not EVs. This makes EVs less competitive.' Tesla could respond to the loss of EV tax credit in 2019 by cutting the price of its vehicles, just like it did when an earlier version of the tax credit was sunset for Tesla buyers in 2019. And with its profits from EV sales, it can cut prices more than its legacy automaker competitors. Even with the tax credit, Tesla has been responding to slowing demand and greater EV competition with a series of price cuts in recent years, squeezing its profit margins. There is also the question of how focused Musk has been on running things at Tesla, as he spends much of his time and attention in Mar-a-Lago or Washington DC. He has always had a broad range of other companies and interests, including rocket and satellite company SpaceX, social media platform X and artificial intelligence company xAI, among others. He now has an office at the White House as he focuses on plans to identify federal programs that can be cut by the new administration, to further take him away from the Tesla offices and factories where he once worked around the clock. This past week, Tesla rolled out an updated version of the Model Y, its best-selling car, but there was no event hosted by Musk to hype the changes, as he has done for all past model roll outs. He has ambitious goals for new vehicles, including a lower-priced model, as well as the Cybercab. But even some Tesla bulls have doubts about Musk's target dates. 'Hitting target dates for Tesla is like the Jets draft picks. They've not been very accurate,' Ives, the Wedbush Securities analyst, said.
CNN
28-01-2025
- Automotive
- CNN
Telsa just had its worst sales year ever. But the stock has had a great run
Tesla will likely report thinner profit margins in its quarterly and full-year results Wednesday, a result of its first drop in annual sales in its history last year and a price war in the EV sector from increased competition. But the company's large swaths of investors seem more focused on CEO Elon Musk's bromance with President Donald Trump than the troubling noises coming from the car company behind Musk's fortune. Shares of Tesla are up 57% since the close of trading on Election Day — even with some of the company's troubles, which include a change in federal emission regulations that could reduce the billions of dollars it gets from the sale of regulatory credits, and increased competition for electric car buyers. Tesla also nearly lost its title as the world's largest maker of EVs to Chinese automaker BYD at the end of last year, even though BYD has yet to enter the US market. But with the growing sales of EVs in China, Tesla seems likely to lose that title this year, especially if its sales continue to decline. But Musk's close connection to Trump has investors hoping that the new administration will clear the way for some of his grand plans, including approval of true self-driving cars that don't have accelerator or brake pedals or steering wheels, which Musk has promised for years. Aside from regulations, however, Tesla's technology — including 'Full Self Driving,' or FSD — has not lived up to Musk's claims and promises in the past, and has faced investigations into its safety by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The current version of FSD requires a person to be in the driver's seat, ready to take control of the car should a problem arise. Musk insists, however, that truly driverless 'Cybercab' robotaxis from Tesla will be available by 2026 and that its service will make the company by far the most valuable in the world. While even Musk admits 'I tend to be a little optimistic with time frames,' he also said that only regulatory hurdles are keeping keep his next generation of self-driving robotaxis from being a reality soon. There are analysts who agree with his view. 'I think the Trump tailwind is just starting for Musk and Tesla, and the value of autonomous vehicles and FSD is going to be unleashed,' said Dan Ives, analyst with Wedbush Securities and a Tesla bull. 'In our view Tesla continues to be the most undervalued AI play in the market.' But there are still Tesla bears who don't believe that autonomous driving is as close as Musk promises. They also say that the softening growth in the American electric vehicle market is a major problem for the company. Shares of Tesla have lost 17% of their value since their peak a month ago, despite still being far above the pre-election price. Gordon Johnson, an analyst who is one of the most vocal critics of Tesla, says the controversy surrounding Musk, including his support for Trump and far-right political parties in Germany and the UK, is hurting demand for Tesla cars among liberal American and European buyers who are more inclined to spend the money on an EV. 'I think it's hurting Tesla tremendously. He's gone full MAGA,' said Johnson. 'Many Tesla buyers won't consider buying a Tesla again.' Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term vowing to end tougher emission standards put in place during the Biden administration. Those rules didn't just govern what came out of a gasoline engine's tailpipe. They also enabled makers of cars that polluted too much to buy 'regulatory credits' from manufacturers of zero-emissions cars, like Tesla, to bring themselves into compliance. Tesla is by far the greatest beneficiary of those purchases: It reported $2 billion in credit sales in the first nine months of 2024. Although some of those credits come from automakers complying with state regulations, rather than federal regulations, Trump has also vowed to block those tougher state emission rules, although a court fight over such a move is virtually certain. Investors will be looking for guidance from Musk and Tesla on Wednesday on the future of those credit sales. Trump has also vowed to eliminate a $7,500 tax credit to EV buyers, a move that could further cripple the EV market in the United States. Automakers would likely further cut the price of EVs to make them more competitive with gasoline-powered cars. It's once again not clear when such a move would take effect. But Musk is on record saying he approves of removing what he called a 'subsidy' for EV sales. Some analysts argue that legacy automakers — which are losing money on all their EVs, largely due to startup development costs — are more likely to pull back on their EV production and offerings altogether, and thus provide less competition for Tesla. The end of the credit 'will widen Tesla's competitive moat by making competing EV models even more uneconomic, as we believe TSLA is the only profitable manufacturer of EVs,' wrote Garrett Nelson, analyst for CFRA Research, in a note to clients the day after the election. 'For these reasons, we now view Tesla shares as deserving of higher multiples, but acknowledge challenges in the near term.' But Johnson said the loss of the EV tax credit will make it more difficult for Tesla's cars to compete with gasoline-powered cars. And the company already has more capacity to build cars than it has buyers. 'It's a huge negative for Tesla,' Johnson said. 'They have a demand problem. They can't sell out their existing capacity. Nine out of 10 car buyers are choosing gasoline-powered cars, not EVs. This makes EVs less competitive.' Tesla could respond to the loss of EV tax credit in 2019 by cutting the price of its vehicles, just like it did when an earlier version of the tax credit was sunset for Tesla buyers in 2019. And with its profits from EV sales, it can cut prices more than its legacy automaker competitors. Even with the tax credit, Tesla has been responding to slowing demand and greater EV competition with a series of price cuts in recent years, squeezing its profit margins. There is also the question of how focused Musk has been on running things at Tesla, as he spends much of his time and attention in Mar-a-Lago or Washington DC. He has always had a broad range of other companies and interests, including rocket and satellite company SpaceX, social media platform X and artificial intelligence company xAI, among others. He now has an office at the White House as he focuses on plans to identify federal programs that can be cut by the new administration, to further take him away from the Tesla offices and factories where he once worked around the clock. This past week, Tesla rolled out an updated version of the Model Y, its best-selling car, but there was no event hosted by Musk to hype the changes, as he has done for all past model roll outs. He has ambitious goals for new vehicles, including a lower-priced model, as well as the Cybercab. But even some Tesla bulls have doubts about Musk's target dates. 'Hitting target dates for Tesla is like the Jets draft picks. They've not been very accurate,' Ives, the Wedbush Securities analyst, said.
