Anna Vis
Tesla is one of the favourites of the public when it comes to responsible innovations in the car industry. They have these beautiful cars which are really fancy, luxurious, fast and at the same time electric and so a responsible car. They are definitely my favourite, every time I see one I praise the owner for having a car driving on sustainable energy and at the same I admire the Tesla for its performance and appearance.
Tesla was founded with the idea of creating a sports car which would be full electric. This they did and with success, they now even sell their technology to other car companies as well. After introducing this sports car they introduced more family car like models as well. Last week Tesla introduced a system which makes the cars self-driving on highways, though it did mention not to take your hands of the steering wheel. Why, because the system sometimes fails and the car makes unexpected manoeuvres. I believe that this then can’t yet be seen as a real self-driving system and it seems dangerous to me now.
We expect Tesla to excel with their technologies in cars, which puts pressure on them to stay ahead the other car brands and to keep introducing new technology. Unfortunately the new technologies used in the self-driving cars are not reliable so I think they should not have brought it on the market. Especially looking at the debate about self-driving cars, with this not properly working system they confirm the opposition that self-driving cars indeed are not safe. Tesla does take all cars back with which something is wrong but now it will be harder for people to trust self-driving cars again. They did warn people that the autopilot is still in its starting phase and so they collect data from consumers driving with the autopilot to improve the autopilot system. I think this risk they take with consumers is too big, looking at the movies people made of the manoeuvres the cars make they really introduce uncertain and unsafe driving behaviour which may cause accidents. The risk is just too big that something does go wrong and then self-driving cars will experience a throwback and Tesla as well. I think this is a pity because I do think there is much potential for self-driving cars.
Tesla has great perspectives but I think they should not yield under the pressure of expectations. As it shows it works against them because people lose their trust in Tesla cars. Now they will have a harder time convincing people next time that their self-driving system is safe. People are very anxious when it comes to technology taking their lives in their hands. They often do not feel safe and as this is a form of risk as well, Tesla should have taken this into account and not just brought the technology on the road.
So Tesla I really love your cars and your ideas which roughly woke up the traditional car brands but please do not think too easily about the risks involved when already using your autopilot system on the roads. It isn’t safe yet and now you put people’s lives in danger.