Consumer Reports says Tesla should drop Autopilot name

The magazine also urged the NHTSA to step up oversight of cars with features like Autopilot.

That’s quite a change from last October when the consumer watchdog drove a Tesla equipped with Autopilot and reported the system “worked quite well”, considering its limitations.

Consumer Reports has stepped up pressure on Tesla Motors to disable its Autopilot system until the system can be modified with several safety provisions. According to USA Today, the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has already launched investigations into the crash of 40-year-old OH resident Joshua Brown.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that it is “collecting information” from state police, the automaker and the driver to ascertain “whether automated functions were in use at the time”.

The accident occurred May 7th in Williston, Florida with 40-year-old OH resident Joshua Brown driving.

On Wednesday, a Tesla spokesperson said that the program was there to reassure customers in the early years of Tesla that the vehicle will hold its value, but now its cars are holding their value even better than the guaranteed resale value, so the program is no longer necessary.

The magazine says in a statement that calling the system Autopilot promotes a risky assumption that Teslas can drive themselves. NHTSA said Tesla must comply with its request by August 26 or face penalties of up to $21,000 per day, to a maximum of $105 million. It uses cameras, sensors, radar and Global Positioning System to speed up, slow down and steer the vehicle.

Disable Autosteer until it can be reprogrammed to require drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel. Drivers also must be prepared to take over at any time, Tesla has said.

A photo from Tesla shows how its dashboard appears with Autopilot engaged Image 1 of 2 · Next Image…

Test all safety-critical systems fully before public deployment; no more beta releases. According to the same publication the name autopilot is “misleading and potentially unsafe”.

Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk said Tesla had no plans to disable Autopilot, but he told the Wall Street Journal the company would publish a blog that would instruct owners how to use Autopilot safely. Under current regulations, NHTSA doesn’t test or approve the systems. It is in the process of developing standards for self-driving cars.

Just one month earlier, Brown had credited the Autopilot system for preventing a collision on an interstate.

“Consumers should never be guinea pigs for vehicle safety “beta” programs”, MacCleery said. But he did not specify whether the vehicle alerted him to retake the wheel.

Fortunately, neither the passenger nor the driver – or, more accurately, driver-side occupant – of the vehicle was injured in the crash. Brown’s auto crashed beneath the truck then went off the road and crashed into several barriers.