LarrySellerz

Hey guys, anyone else have an unusually large number of close calls with Teslas? I wonder if it has something to do with the self driving tech, there are autonomous cars all over my campus at work (kind of hate the bay area...) which are very obnoxious, but Teslas are on a whole other level of cluelessness. Im not saying most tesla owners are bad drivers, but it seems like most bad drivers own teslas. Once the tesla truck comes out its a wrap, im done for haha

Rolla

Since you have an appetite for low-hanging fruit, dunk on BMWs next.

zandoval 

Only had one Tesla sneaking up on me on the torn up asphalt roads I ride. And he had a very nice ($$$$) bike strapped to its back...

tkamd73 

Not a Tesla fan, but where I bike the F150 is more of a threat. Not a lot of Teslas in Wisconsin.
Tim

tomato coupe

A.I. is trying to cull the human population, starting with Larry the underperforming segment of the population.

SurferRosa

I had no idea there were 50 million Teslas on the road.

PeteHski

Okay I'll bite, since I drive a Tesla. Firstly, there is no correlation whatsoever between what people drive and their driving ability. Agreed? It's like saying American drivers are clueless. Or short drivers are clueless. Or women drivers are clueless? Get the point?

So if there was an inherent "Tesla" problem it would have to be linked to autonomous driving. So if I put my Tesla into Autopilot and come up behind a cyclist, what does it do? Well it actually slows down and follows the cyclist, making no attempt to overtake in the same lane. It's very conservative in that regard. Maybe there are just loads of Teslas where you ride? It's just a numbers game. Whether or not you have a close call depends entirely on who is behind the wheel, not whether or not it is a Tesla.

Digger Goreman

Even Car Culture is a symptom of the horde-ing that grips western (and increasingly, eastern) cultures. The attitude that someone has "earned it" is deeply ingrained in the ego construct and expressed not only in ownership of specialized gee-gaws, but concious-to-subconcious indoctrinated attitudes towards others assumed to be "less".

Egos hate... and they/we hate "inconvenience" the most. Any "difference" (to the ego) is an "inconvenience".... You/we are an inconvenience to the car owned/owner....

WhyFi

Larry's not familiar with the concept of confirmation bias? Color me shocked.

Dino_Sore

Question: What's the difference between a BMW and a porcupine?

Answer: The porcupine has pricks on the outside.

GhostRider62

It's the Prius drivers in my area. And the Tesla drivers. BMW drivers aren't much better and don't get me started on the chick texting doing 50 in the 30 zone in her flashy white Mercedes. The old farmers in old trucks? The best

Troul 

this should be good for 4 pages, if it doesn't get the model "x".

Daniel4

Bad drivers have been trying to cull the human population for decades. AI can't be worse.

unterhausen

I saw something that said 1/3 of all crashes in the U.S. were caused by texting. Unsourced, so I'm just passing it on so you can pass it on unsourced.

If that's true, probably the low quality tesla self-driving is better.

I traveled to DC last week and all the Tesla drivers were really tentative. There was always heavy traffic though, so I did wonder if it was the way that autopilot (sic) behaves in heavy traffic.

joesch

Tesla auto pilot is programmed to help spot cyclists and warn the driver. The Full Self-Driving Capability surely needs more machine learning training and there will be more incidents while training on data ... That said, these cars are generally much safer than other cars with bad drivers. They are unfortunately for cyclists very quiet so its harder to hear the approach. Here is a reference to my initial statement https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-auto...ist-detection/

indyfabz

No.

Clyde1820

IMO, that's a capability that's definitely not yet ready for "prime time." As in, shouldn't hardly be on pubic roads just yet. It's just too damned new and unproven.

Sure, in many situations it handles the basics well. But there are far too many incidents this past several years where the damned technology seemingly can't recognize some easily anticipated situations ... ones that we human drivers cope with all the time.

Whether the close swipes you're speaking of actually were caused by an "auto pilot" mode, my suspicion is that a great number of such cars still do what they do because of mindless, clueless drivers who'd drive just as abominably in a different vehicle.

Would love to have a little electronics-sensing module on my bike that scooped up all the radio/laser energy nearby in order to determine what sort of system was "pinging" me on the road as such vehicles approach. I suspect that, just as with video recording on bikes, such tech might help nail such drivers (or makers) to the wall when their close/dangerous calls get captured and documented. Not that it'd help avoid such collisions or close shaves.

Koyote

It's getting very close.

With more refinement, I have no doubt that self-driving cars will be safer than a bunch of distracted/drunk/foolish humans.

Reflector Guy

What did bad drivers drive before there were Teslas?

livedarklions

Have you tried biking on the hyperloop? You have to bring your own oxygen, but damn it is fast.

Next up: Bike lanes on Mars.

Troul 

SUV's & yellow buses.

livedarklions

Yes.

prj71

Larry,

Don't you have some misaligned brakes to fix?

WhyFi

No - he has some misaligned brakes to not fix.

Flip Flop Rider

not sure if I've seen even one