Us Secretary of Transportation: lack of "common sense" in naming Tesla Autopilot

CTOnews.com, March 14 (Xinhua) US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently told Bloomberg News in Washington that the name "Autopilot" used by Tesla, the US electric car company, is unreasonable, which is worrying.

"if the manual makes it clear that you have to keep your hands on the steering wheel and keep your eyes on the road, I wouldn't call it 'Autopilot','" Buttigieg said. "I'm not talking about the scope of the NHTSA investigation, I'm just speaking from a common sense point of view. I think that's a problem."

It should be reminded that Tesla's technology is still considered as an L2 driving assistance system, mainly because the driver must always monitor the behavior of the car, otherwise the system will stop working.

CTOnews.com noted that last month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that Tesla would recall more than 360000 vehicles because its FSD Beta driving assistance increased the risk of accidents. As a result of this recall, the FSD feature will be suspended for new users and subscribers who have not received software updates, while users who have activated the FSD Beta feature will be able to continue to use it. In addition, NHTSA is investigating possible Autopilot defects and evaluating the way Tesla tracks drivers to ensure their participation, while the Ministry of Justice is investigating whether the electric carmaker made misleading statements about its driving assistance system.