Self-driving cars are just another Silicon Valley obsession that no one needs
22 October 2024 6:30am BST
Another day, another hissy fit from Planet Musk, though for once it’s not the world’s most temperamental billionaire chucking his toys out of the pram.
Instead, the tantrum comes from lower down the Tesla hierarchy. Maybe there’s a course that company bosses go on where they learn to be as thin-skinned as their trailblazing boss.
Marc Van Impe, Tesla’s outgoing head of global vehicle automation, has quit with a stinging attack on European regulators for failing to approve the carmaker’s self-driving technology.
In an outburst reminiscent of the giant strop thrown by Microsoft chief Brad Smith when the tech giant’s attempt to buy Activision was blocked by British competition wonks, Van Impe made the ridiculous claim that a delay to the rules governing how the system would work in Britain and Europe “impacts European competitiveness”.
It of course does nothing of the sort. On the contrary, it is a victory for common sense. As one reader of this newspaper quipped: Elon’s Musk’s dreams are other people’s nightmares.
Multiple tests have proven that self-driving technology is a long way from being safe: one study found that the accident rate was more than double per million miles compared to cars driven by humans, and in April, America’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a report linking hundreds of accidents and at least 29 fatal crashes to the use of Tesla’s driver-assistance systems.
Part of the problem is that Tesla has been allowed to describe this feature as “autopilot”, despite it being far from it. The issue is that many drivers appear to be unaware of the critical distinction between a system that is designed to replace the driver entirely and one that is merely intended to aid driving. The technology is a “driving automation system designed to support and assist the driver in performing the driving task”, the crucial small print explains.