Another suspected Tesla Autopilot crash

I found this one interesting, especially looking at Google Street View of the location, and noticing there is a break in the road's center line markings right before the accident scene, I am speculating this car was on Autopilot, and swerved across when there was a break in the lane markings. For those that think Tesla FSD is right around the corner, how many Waymo and Cruise Automation crashes have you seen happen like this? And of course the other Police Cars and Fire Trucks? Even our resident Tesla defender Bob just pointed out similar A/P errors and a near accident of his own in a post yesterday.

 

Marshall, I see Waymo testing every day in Bellevue, and have seen them navigate some tricky situations in bumper to bumper traffic where the car had to go across lane markers to keep going, due to backups entering 520. It was pretty impressive, my point being you do not see Waymo or Cruise automation cars drive off of straight roads and try to climb telephone poles, or try to put our buddy Bob in the ditch as his Model 3 did last week, also on a straight stretch of road. As for Cruise Automation, I have not seen their cars on the road personally, but they published a video showing their cars handling some pretty tricky situations, some of which would even stump a good human driver.


As for my purchases personally, I never get too caught up in any car brand. When the I-Pace came to dealers it had a few shortcomings I realized would bother me, So I decided to wait for the next generation. I also ordered the E-Tron, and Taycan just to hedge my bets. Heck I even thought about buying a Model S P100DL last qtr if the price got low enough (was down to $90K, I offered $85K) The E-Tron looks pretty good though, and now that I have driven and charged the dealer demo car, I am thinking long and hard about it. With all the Electrify America chargers going into WA state (23 locations already under construction or complete compared to 16 locations for Tesla Superchargers in WA), it's going to be easier to live with the limited range. Fortunately Audi allows you to cancel and get a deposit refund right up until the time you sign to take the car, so there is no loss to wait and see if I like the car, and can squeeze on the dealer a bit on the price when it comes in. I am not used to paying full price for anything, and pretty stubborned in negotiations (just ask the salesman at Motor Trucks, as I just walked away from a $550K truck order that we had been negotiating with them for over a month, over $2K) Bought Peterbilt trucks instead of International after the Kenworth dealership sold out to PAPE which is not my favorite company. Sad, as all we have ever owned is Kenworth prior.

 

No, you cannot buy a Waymo car yet, but yes they are Full Self Driving, most recent data suggests they need human interaction about once a week per car. Can Tesla even go 5 minutes in the city without human interaction... Nope... Yes, both Cruise and Waymo cars are geofenced to the areas that have been precisely mapped, but GM bought a mapping company a couple years ago and is mapping most cities in the USA and Canada. The Seattle metro area is already done, they were here last year working on it.

Tesla S and X older than one month are not CCS compatible, even with an adaptor, that is why Tesla does not convert to CCS.

As for EA getting their chargers online, their cars are just arriving in the market now, as more VW products arrive you will see more urgency to fire up the stations. Most of the stations in WA are fully constructed (17 of 23 to be precise), and just waiting to be commissioned, and a couple are waiting for utility side transformers. Marshall, you were one of the know it all's saying that EA would not follow through with their commitments, looks to me like they are right on target, over 300 station now operational, and another 150 under development in the USA. I have even seen a few Cycle 2 submitted for permits recently, and Cycle 2 does not start until the second half of the year. Electrify Canada is also going gangbusters now, building out their Cycle 1.

 

Bob, follow the shorts and you will have the information... It was posted last night with links to the police dept. and the address. One of the shorts claims to live very near there. Shorts are reporting another A/P crash into a broke down car in CA today, more information to follow...

I did not buy an I-Pace as I have high standards, and the initial cars did not meet my expectations.