Tesla Autopilot Crashes into Motorcycle Riders - Why?

Tesla’s Autopilot is suspected in the fatal rear endings of two motorcyclists. With deep learning doing automated feature extraction, it's impossible to know how AI "sees" us. But we have a terrifying guess.

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Directed and Edited by Luke McAdam

[FortNine]

Since this video was filmed, Ingrid Noon was rear ended and killed by a 2020 Tesla Model 3 at 2:11am in Boca Raton, FL. She was riding a Kawasaki Vulcan S cruiser. The Sheriff’s Office confirmed driver impairment and has yet to release any information pertaining to Autopilot. [Update: CNN reports Autopilot was engaged during this crash.]

[Erelyes]

Part of the excellence of this channel is that F9 knows when to treat a subject with humour, jokes, and innuendo; and when to treat it with reverence, sincerity and seriousness. This is a perfect example of not only knowing what you need to say, but how you need to say it. I applaud the whole team at F9 for their work.

[WatchmakerErik]

RIP to those poor souls who went out for a ride and never came home. Thank you, FortNine team, for giving their sacrifice some meaning by educating us all.

[johnaboardviolet]

I am a 72 year old Australian man with no car. I get around by either walking or cycling or public transport . Am thinking about buying a moderately sized motorcycle for occasionally traveling further distances. Your videos have given me great information on keeping me alive if I do buy a motorcycle. I do have a motorcycle license.

[berylcloud]

The taillight theory reminded me of an old Fortnine video about the dangers of using high beams which could end up being mistaken as a distant car when it's actually a motorcycle up close

[thaneirwin]

So a similar thing happened with my Dad recently. He bought a Mercedes and said he needs to find out if he can turn off the mirror Blind Spot monitoring feature. Basically it lights up on the mirror if someone is in the blindspot. He used to ride motorcycles and noticed that sometimes it doesn't pick cars and particularly motorbikes up in the blindspot.

If this safety feature that people come to rely on sometimes doesn't work. Its potentially worse than not having it at all. I guess the question we need to ask is what number of acceptable "glitch" fatilities are better than the poor driver actions on the road currently. There will be a balance point in a spreadsheet that insurance companies and goverments find acceptable.

[zeroninehundred]

Thank you Ryan, and thanks to your team. As a motorcycle rider, I find this both sad and scary to watch — but it is important and you’re getting the information out quickly to a wide audience. We love your humor and simplistic explanations of complex motorcycle matters, but these serious and informed topics are also highly valuable to us riders. Keep up the outstanding work.

[jeffreyestahl]

I used to teach bicycle safety and commented to my students that they had to be triply observant: 1) For pedestrians, 2) For themselves, 3) For cars. Human drivers often will see pedestrians but miss cyclists (just a few years ago, I was nearly hit while turning left by a speeder who didn't see me, the bike I was on with multiple flashing lights and reflectors); we're pretty small objects on the roads (and sadly, not all roads have defined bike lanes). A problem I often have to so-called self-driving cars is that they respect those bike lanes (which typically only have a thin stripe separating them from the main road) even less than human drivers do. It's only a matter of time before some Tesla driver decides to use the "auto-pilot" in areas with bicycles and kills one. Frankly, I can't say I'm a big fan of Teslas or self-driving cars right now, and Musk's cynical and callous defense of his vehicles and company only demonstrates his lack of compassion if not lack of intelligence. (a truly intelligent person would have at least simulated compassion for those his vehicles have hit and killed, and Musk never has any)

[TheJonstolte]

I absolutely love that you added your sources to the end of the video!

hopefully more people follow your lead, it's way harder to BS when you have to cite your sources

[matthewkonersman]

This is anecdotal, but I ride 20 miles to/from work daily in Los Angeles while lane sharing. It has become more evident to me that Tesla drivers are not paying attention. My S1000xr has 4 clearwater lights up front making me extremely visible, and I still notice more Tesla's than other cars not moving over. I can also see them either looking at their phones or playing with the touch screen as I pass. I'm not looking forward to trucks and SUVs having this technology abused.

[rickoshae]

I've always been under the assumption autopilot should be used the same as cruise control, but like cruise control for the steering. You still need to brake and steer when needed! but people treat it like a personal driver..

[ntrkt]

This is terrifying. Brilliant reporting & I was not aware Tesla had removed the radar!

[TacoBurrit]

"Telsa are selling future features today, but today 2 motorcyclists are dead"
That was a really well written, hard hitting line

[ArcticNemo]

One safety feature I add to my commuter bicycle is a downward-firing light to make a 'glowpool' that seems to give drivers a much better reference of where the hell I actually am.
Ground-effect lighting does indeed have a place on our streets, particularly for bikes and scooters.

[byever]

Airplane autopilot technology relies heavily on having redundancy because technology can fail. If you have something else to fall on you still have a chance of getting to your destination.

When that fails you have two pilots.

[MrZeldafanX]

What gets me the most is that he said they got rid of the radar instead of investing in sensor fusion.
That would have been the proper fix, but would have been more expensive

[sleepymas]

I was in my car recently that has adaptive cruise and it has never missed a motorcycle but then it did. I realized why it missed it quickly and I took control and slowed down. The bike was riding near the road line making it just outside the sight line of the car. The training we had as riders to ride to the side for oil and escape paths caused the car to not see the bike. This has made me realize I should ride a little closer to the center than I used to in the past.

[JadeFalcon]

The problem with labeling it as "autopilot" is to most people it implies they don't need to worry about driving. The car will just take care of itself. In airplanes however a good pilot knows how to use autopilot, what it's weaknesses are, and when to not rely on it. Also, any good pilot will approach a tool like this with a "what if it fails" mindset. Not in a paralyzing fear, but a preparedness sense. I took this mindset into every vehicle I drive. It's a good way to stay safe.

[PeakBusinessEquipment]

I work in industries that use various scanners, sensors, and vision systems. Lighting, distance, and speed play a huge role in choosing the right one(s). It's hard to imagine relying solely on cameras when other technologies are nearly full-proof when used correctly in the right circumstances. Why Tesla doesn't use complementary sensors is a mystery unless you consider the added costs. Thanks to FortNine for creating this awareness for other riders.

[LordandGodofYouTube]

How governments allow this to be tested on the road by customers is beyond me.