Elon Musk and Tesla ignored Autopilot’s fatal flaws, judge says evidence shows

Tesla may owe punitive damages to victim as key trial over Autopilot proceeds.

See full article...

 

[gnasher729]

Whatever they want to be called, I'd guess.

But it seems reasonable for somebody living in a country with "America" in its name to want to be called an "American", don't you think?

It seems reasonable, but it seems more reasonable to distinguish between people living in America and people living in one half of North America. Of course you can be called American as long as you promise to call Americans living in Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Honduras, Guatemala, (dozen other countries), chile, Brazil and Argentina “Americans” as well.

 

[gnasher729]

That video was a demo of Full-Self-Driving, a different feature than Autopilot. FSD is still in beta testing, and there have been no reported significant crashes with it yet. I agree that the court case will focus on how well Tesla explains this difference. Because Autopilot crashes into cross traffic and stationary obstacles, just like TACC and AEB systems from other companies do.

Calling it "autopilot” probably sells cars but is extremely dangerous-because people are led to believe that the car can drive on its own.

 

[gnasher729]

I don’t know why a bunch of people are arguing about whether or not “USians” or whatever is the right terminology.

Does anyone really think that people from outside the US want to be associated with us? If you’re looking for extra seats at a bar outside the US, just tell them you’re American. Seats all around you magically empty.

You don’t need to tell them. Just act as usual.

 

[gnasher729]

I will remember this the next time someone ignores my request to use my correct pronouns. You sound a lot like that type of person.

Free speech and all that. Elon Musk fully supports free speech and Merkins being called USAians.

My favourite piece of random trivia is that Ayn Rand enjoyed the twilight years of her life as "welfare queen".
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ayn-rand-social-security/

A Quick Look: According to her, it is acceptable to take welfare cheques if you have objected to taxation. When the less deluded ones would say either it’s ok if you are willing to pay taxes when you can, or if you need it. A true sociopath.

 

[gnasher729]

As a Canadian, I can chime in for you on the first spot.

I would never call myself "American". I would call myself "North American", that signifies the continent of North America, but "American" is for the people of the US. If people say "USian" or calling Canadians "American" unironically, they deserve to be ridiculed.

Hell, I can throw that back to England, or Great Britain, or whatnot. Is it the British or the English? Because saying "the English" would be weird, because England isn't the only place that is English. Australia, Canada, US, and a few others have their official languages as English...

That's quite ignorant. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is made up of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. All of them will say they are British. All of them will get angry if you insist on making them belong to the wrong part. And you are confusing "English" which is "coming from England" with "English speaking" or "native English speaking".

And Great Britain is the largest of the British Isles. The second largest is Ireland, probably followed by the Isle of Wight, Isle of Man, Shetland and many others in some order.

 

[gnasher729]

It's true, but sometimes the customers would rather withhold their money from companies that think being kept alive is a good idea on the principle that they don't like being told what to do.

Laws mandating seatbelts mere existence, then mandating their use were probably the first culture war bullshit I remember. People got very boycotty over manufacturers just installing seat-belt warning bits (the wonderful beep beep, etc). People truly got up in arms when states started passing laws mandating drivers wear seat belts. "How dare you tell me what to do! My car, my body!" I was confuounded by all the anecdata that typically ended up in letters to the editor any time a newspaper ran any story about seat belts along the lines of, "my uncle was killed by a seat belt! The detective told me if he had just not been wearing that seatbelt when he drunk drove into that concrete barrier he would have been fine, but the seatbelt snapped his neck. If this state wants to pass a law that makes me wear one I'll just pay the ticket or move somewhere else" etc, and other bullshit.

In high school I knew a kid who mostly talked about two things: Ayn Rand and how he had disabled the automatic seatbelts, all sensors, etc in his Pontiac and would tell anyone who would listen about how seatbelts were a conspiracy and he was winning against it (it was too stupid for me to remember the finer contours of said conspiracy). He'd get you sit in the passenger seat, turn the thing on and turn to you smiling, "notice anything??? No fucking beeping, no dash light even!" Amazingly he did manage to live to make it to the 20th reunion, so maybe he was right

Never underestimate the gold-medal levels of mental gymnastics folks go through when it comes to libertarianism, capitalism, and free-dumb.

I was about 17 when wearing a seatbelt became law here. A slightly older friend had this car that had a strange habit: If passengers didn't wear seatbelts it would from time to time brake very sharply. If you didn't want your face in the windscreen, you wore your seatbelt. Later, my grandkids learned that grandad's car wouldn't drive if someone wasn't wearing their seatbelt.

Now the good thing about not wearing seatbelts is that you kill only yourself, not others. Disabling warning signs? I had a car that bleeped if you put your shopping on the passenger seat, quite annoying. If he disabled the seatbelts or removed them, that would be a punchable event.

 

[gnasher729]

On a related note, in the event you ever visit the Orkney or Shetland Isles, do not refer to Scotland as 'the mainland'. There's a lot of people there who consider themselves separate from being Scottish.

I know, some will consider Norway the "main land".

 

[gnasher729]

And don't call Ireland a Brittish Isle to the Irish. It might technically be, but the Irish consider it a claim of sovereignty from Great Britain over Ireland.

Ireland is not a "British Isle" which would be an island that is part of Britain. But Ireland is one of a group of islands that are collectively called "British Isles".

 

[gnasher729]

The key difference here being that if the bank's software fucks up then there's a good chance it'll be corrected before anyone notices. If your car's software fucks up, you (and others) potentially die.

Bit of a difference.

And bugs in your banking software might move money in the wrong place, but usually it can be just moved back.