TPT September 2016

G LOBA L MARKE T P L AC E

is driving the car; the other, that the controls may need to be wrested back at a moment’s notice. As a result, noted Mr Gardner of the Free Press , “Drivers using Autopilot may not be engaged enough to react quickly to emergency situations.” › Consumer Reports also urged that Tesla rename the technology – another recommendation which Tesla co- founder and CEO Elon Musk did not take up. Declaring that the company has no plans to disable Autopilot, Mr Musk told the Wall Street Journal that it would publish a blog instructing Tesla owners in the safe use of Autopilot. The Tesla CEO did make one concession, however. In Twitter posts on 14 July, Mr Musk said the company was working on improvements to the radar system of Autopilot.

Automot i ve Three roadway accidents, one of them fatal, have in common the ambiguously named Autopilot feature from Tesla In the third accident reported over a two-week period involving a Tesla Motors car operating in semi-autonomous Autopilot mode, on 10 July the driver of a Tesla Model X and his passenger escaped injury in a one-vehicle accident in Montana. According to Montana State Trooper Jade Schope, the driver said he activated Autopilot on setting out from Seattle, Washington. As reported by the driver, he was exiting a two-lane highway after midnight when the fully electric SUV began veering to the right and hit a wooden guardrail before coming to a stop. Mr Schope told the Detroit Free Press , “He lost the right front wheel and there was extensive damage to the front of the vehicle.” (“Another Tesla Veers Off Road, Crashes Into Guardrail in Montana,” 11 July) Earlier, Joshua Brown died on 7 May in Williston, Florida, when the Autopilot system of his Tesla Model S failed to detect a tractor-trailer turning in front of the luxury all-electric sedan. The investigation found that Mr Brown had been watching a video in the car at the time of the crash. It has not yet been established whether the accident was the fault of the car’s technology, Mr Brown, or the driver of the tractor-trailer hit by the car. In the third episode, on 1 July two men were injured when a Tesla Model X hit a guardrail along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, crossed over several lanes, then hit a concrete median and rolled onto its roof, taking extensive damage. The driver told a Pennsylvania state trooper that the car was operating in Autopilot mode. Greg Gardner of the Free Press noted that, while it is unclear whether driver error contributed to the crash, according to a police report released on 11 July a careless driving citation was issued. H ANDS - OFF OR HANDS - ON ? Autopilot is not in fact an autonomous-vehicle (AV) technology but employs computer software, sensors, cameras and radar to, in Tesla’s words, “automatically steer down the highway, change lanes, and adjust speed in response to traffic.” These features are said to reduce the driver’s workload and help to avoid hazards. But Tesla advises that Autopilot is meant to be used with eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel. That is not enough for Consumer Reports . “‘Autopilot’ can’t actually drive the car, yet it allows consumers to have their hands off the steering wheel for minutes at a time,” wrote Laura MacCleery, vice-president of consumer policy and mobilisation for the advocacy group, in a 14 July statement. “Tesla should disable automatic steering in its cars until it updates the program to verify that the driver’s hands are on the wheel.” Consumer Reports experts believe that Tesla drivers are confused by conflicting messages: one saying that Autopilot

As car ownership loses some appeal, automakers hedge their bets with the likes of Uber, Gett and Lyft

Two of the world’s largest automakers, Toyota and Volkswagen, announced they are investing in technology start-ups whose mission is to change the habits of the driving public. Toyota said it had formed a partnership with and invested an undisclosed amount in the world’s biggest ride- hailing company – Uber, of the US. Gett, the Israel-based startup that connects customers with taxi drivers, said that it has attracted $300mn from Volkswagen. Similar initiatives remarked by the New York Times include General Motors, which in January invested $500mn in San Francisco-based Lyft, the ride-hailing app. Ford Motor is making over its Dearborn, Michigan, headquarters into a Silicon Valley-like campus traversed by self-driving shuttles. Fiat Chrysler and Google have an agreement to produce a test fleet of driverless minivans. In Germany, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have started to pilot-test ride services. As noted by Times reporters Mike Isaac and Neal E Boudette, these alliances form a string of pairings between technology companies and car companies scrambling to reposition themselves. The traditional automakers, they wrote, “are looking toward a technology-driven future, one where they increasingly acknowledge that getting around may not require owning a car.” (“Automakers Befriend Start-Ups Like Uber, Girding Against a Changing Car Culture,” 24 May) They are some years short of a payoff on their investment, according to Karl Brauer, an analyst at the car valuation firm Kelley Blue Book who sees no early sign that “mobility services” – car-sharing and ride-sharing – are hurting the automotive industry. Auto sales in the US hit a record high in 2015 and are rising this year. And China and other international markets will likely ensure continued growth in the global auto market. Even so, Mr Brauer said, auto makers are investing in companies like Uber “to be ahead of the curve” if and when the startups do shake up the norms of car ownership. He told the Times , “History has shown that if you wait for the market to decide, you’re dead.”

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S EPTEMBER 2016