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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Open Thread: ‘That’s Not A Glitch, It’s DELIBERATE!’

Late Night Open Thread: ‘That’s Not A Glitch, It’s DELIBERATE!’

by Anne Laurie|  February 3, 20221:05 am| 41 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You, Tech News and Issues

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Tesla recalls all 53,822 vehicles with its 'full self-driving' featurehttps://t.co/Lq2s6FSDGc

— KB (@GalwayGirl2505) February 1, 2022

Assertive mode! I’d hope this was satire, but it’s Tesla, so…

Probably worth mentioning that this wasn’t because of a bug, it was explicitly designed into the software https://t.co/eCLcJwxfMy pic.twitter.com/p52E5pFQjg

— Cooper Lund (@cooperlund) February 1, 2022

And not just in assertive mode! pic.twitter.com/jTVQfBuEkB

— Cooper Lund (@cooperlund) February 1, 2022

Per @xieish, the rolling stop is done at 5.6 MPH, which is absolutely wildhttps://t.co/3FCKU6QwoW pic.twitter.com/l8zzeyKuTD

— Cooper Lund (@cooperlund) February 1, 2022

Unfortunate timing, in retrospect…

when your heavily subsidized product faces market competition for the first time and despite your anti-government posing you get mad at daddy government for not doing your advertising too https://t.co/dQn6Eks1wC

— kilgore trout, cryptopolice chief (@KT_So_It_Goes) January 31, 2022

It's not enough for the government to award my companies billions in subsidies—the government must praise my brands. pic.twitter.com/L7YjqESPzJ

— Berny Belvedere (@bernybelvedere) February 1, 2022

Yeah, like the Tesla fanbois are gonna care about a few unlucky crosswalkers. This was back in November:

The reviewer also preemptively had to list on Twitter all the times he had given Tesla good reviews in order to try and avoid being drowned in fanboy abuse. Very normal car company, definitely not overvalued. https://t.co/OuOIz2kmXU

— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) November 26, 2021

This is why I reached for the space popcorn when NASA assigned responsibility for the moon lander to Elon Musk’s other company https://t.co/oimh4szJlm

— Pinboard (@Pinboard) November 20, 2021

SpaceX’s plans depend on being able to produce a magical, reusable, totally reliable next-generation rocket at pennies on the bitcoin compared to competitors, all at ludicrous scale. Musk’s ability to run the same clown playbook without ever getting called out is his superpower

— Pinboard (@Pinboard) November 20, 2021

I think part of what protects Musk is his manifest sincerity. No one wants the promises to be true more than he does, and that’s different from willful deceit. But in the end society is supposed to be organized to keep 12 year olds in adult bodies from running half the economy

— Pinboard (@Pinboard) November 20, 2021

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Reader Interactions

41Comments

  1. 1.

    Origuy

    February 3, 2022 at 1:45 am

    I’ve been out most of the day, so I may have missed someone posting this:

    Rudy Giuliani was unmasked as a contestant during a taping last week of 'The Masked Singer.' His presence on the stage upset two of the show’s judges, Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke, so much that they left the set with cameras still rolling, Deadline reports. https://t.co/HgLt5PJEZz— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) February 3, 2022

  2. 2.

    different-church-lady

    February 3, 2022 at 1:45 am

    I’ve yet to meet a white South African in person who wasn’t a complete asshole.

  3. 3.

    RaflW

    February 3, 2022 at 1:46 am

    I have a 7 year old Subie, but I rent cars when I travel. And even just the other day on an interstate the ‘adaptive’ cruise on my non-electric Toyota rental got confused on a curve and thought the vehicle needed to suddenly slow aggressively because of an 18 wheeler in the right lane. Both that vehicle and mine were in our respective lanes.

    I knew right away what was happening because other cyclops rental cars have done similar to me, so I hit the accelerator to over-ride the cruise. I was just glad traffic was light. People round here drive fast and close in the left lane. :/

    eta: I’m sure some lawyer has put a paragraph in the manual about not using the thing on curves. But on an interstate with 65mph engineered curves? C’mon.

  4. 4.

    different-church-lady

    February 3, 2022 at 1:52 am

    Wait… why is there an “assertive” mode at all?

  5. 5.

    Joe Falco

    February 3, 2022 at 1:52 am

    5.6 MPH is slightly faster than what is considered an “Alabama rolling stop” but not by much.

  6. 6.

    different-church-lady

    February 3, 2022 at 1:54 am

    @RaflW: C’mon, you must be well aware that robot crashes are so much safer than human crashes.

  7. 7.

    different-church-lady

    February 3, 2022 at 1:57 am

    Well, here’s one little bit of good news: Zuckerberg is 22% less rich today than he was yesterday.

  8. 8.

    Mallard Filmore

    February 3, 2022 at 2:43 am

    @different-church-lady: 

    I’ve yet to meet a white South African in person who wasn’t a complete asshole.

    The South African that does this YouTube channel does not present as a complete asshole.

    channel: serpentza
    https://www.youtube.com/c/serpentza

    He and a friend used to live in China, and they do stories about their years living there.

  9. 9.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    February 3, 2022 at 3:17 am

    @Origuy: ​
      Ooooh, maybe next week they’ll have on Aldrich Ames on The Masked Singer

  10. 10.

    sab

    February 3, 2022 at 3:21 am

    @Mallard Filmore: He seems kind of nuts to me. Just kind of randomly anti- everything.

  11. 11.

    opiejeanne

    February 3, 2022 at 3:45 am

    @different-church-lady: The car is an actual bully, in assertive mode, isn’t it?

  12. 12.

    Tony Jay

    February 3, 2022 at 3:48 am

    @Origuy:

    Robin Thicke? Blurred Lines Robin Thicke?

    Someone’s agent has been putting in quality time to try and reconstruct that mess.

  13. 13.

    NotMax

    February 3, 2022 at 3:58 am

    @different-church-lady

    Never met him in person but John Charles Daly (veteran newscaster and host of What’s My Line?) seemed a most agreeable chap.

    ;)

  14. 14.

    Salty Sam

    February 3, 2022 at 4:00 am

    @different-church-lady: I’ve yet to meet a white South African in person who wasn’t a complete asshole.

    You might want to broaden your sampling- my good friend MH is a white South African man, and one of the least assholish persons I’ve ever known.

  15. 15.

    Wag

    February 3, 2022 at 4:00 am

    @Joe Falco: 5.6 mph is the same speed as someone running a 10 minute mile.   I guess Teslas have sensors for cops that keep their owners from getting tickets?

  16. 16.

    Ten Bears

    February 3, 2022 at 4:04 am

    If I were still doing radio “Tesla” would be one of my seven words.

    We’ve a few in the neighborhood, exceptional Massholes …

  17. 17.

    opiejeanne

    February 3, 2022 at 4:15 am

    @Wag:  Running a stop sign can be a pricey ticket. I wonder if Tesla got a lot of complaints by people getting ticketed for rolling through a 4-way stop.

  18. 18.

    ColoradoGuy

    February 3, 2022 at 4:45 am

    Kinda surprised this misfeature is in California-made car. Many moons ago, when I lived in LA, a rolling stop was a surefire way of getting pulled over by the LAPD. Also, when driving in a new neighborhood, that would be the invariable reason for the police to pull you over and thoroughly inspect you and your car.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    February 3, 2022 at 5:02 am

    @different-church-lady:

    Facebook lost daily users for the first time ever last quarter

  20. 20.

    Baud

    February 3, 2022 at 5:03 am

    If Tesla rolls through stop signs, no way it  obeys the speed limit.

    I wonder if it has a cheat code for road rage mode.

  21. 21.

    Gvg

    February 3, 2022 at 6:04 am

    @different-church-lady: Alan

  22. 22.

    gene108

    February 3, 2022 at 7:13 am

    Self driving features spook me. I’m not convinced a car’s computer is a better decision maker than me regarding braking, accelerating, and steering.

  23. 23.

    Kalakal

    February 3, 2022 at 7:18 am

    @different-church-lady:

    I’ve yet to meet a white South African in person who wasn’t a complete asshole

    Now there’s a blast from the past (1986 )

    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2z39tr

  24. 24.

    Ken

    February 3, 2022 at 7:18 am

    @Baud: “Chill”, “Average”, and “Assertive” are just the first three settings. You have to swipe left to get to “Aggressive”, “Road Rage”, and “Death Race 20xx”.

    Though, even if it did have those three labels, the most alarming word on that display is “(Beta)”.

  25. 25.

    Kristine

    February 3, 2022 at 7:49 am

    ::thinks back to all the times that Kay mentioned the local substandard Tesla workforce::

    ::then recalls the old saying that a fish starts to stink at the head::

  26. 26.

    Just One More Canuck

    February 3, 2022 at 7:50 am

    @different-church-lady: Because ‘Obnoxious Asshole” mode didn’t sound right

  27. 27.

    Chief Oshkosh

    February 3, 2022 at 8:06 am

    @different-church-lady: I’ve met one. He was disowned by his family in the 80s due to his views on apartheid. He was also extremely gentlemanly, very old school ‘upperclass’ manners, but very down to earth otherwise.

    So, they do exist

     

    ETA: He was against apartheid.

  28. 28.

    burnspbesq

    February 3, 2022 at 8:12 am

    YouTube is full of videos about the perils of Tesla self-driving. Example:

    https://youtu.be/0-dwhwoeL6Y

    Because irony is an opportunist, all of this shit is hitting the fan right after Elon announced a price increase for the self-driving software.

    And Tesla still can’t sell the cars it makes in Texas to Texas buyers, because it hasn’t bribed enough legislators.

  29. 29.

    P Thomas

    February 3, 2022 at 8:14 am

    But but but BIKE RIDERS DON”T STOP AT STOP SIGNS LOOK HOW DANGEROUS THEY ARE…..BIKE RIDERS ARE BAD.

    Tesla:  Why don’t we have a “bike rider mode” that rolls through stop signs?

    The “rolling stop” for bike riders.

    https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Idaho_stop

  30. 30.

    Wapiti

    February 3, 2022 at 9:05 am

    @gene108: Our car isn’t self-driving, but has a lot of driver assist features.

    On a road trip last year , a deer came out of the brush and the car alarmed, braked, and tightened the seatbelt shoulder straps. I think I saw the deer and started to react before the car did all of that, but it’s good to have backup. The car would do the same thing for a kid darting out into traffic.

  31. 31.

    Albatrossity

    February 3, 2022 at 9:08 am

    “Assertive” might be misspelled, but at least they got the first three letters righ.

  32. 32.

    Miss Bianca

    February 3, 2022 at 9:59 am

    @different-church-lady: I met one who wasn’t, but we were both in high school at the time, so he may have had time to evolve into an asshole.

  33. 33.

    RSA

    February 3, 2022 at 10:03 am

    There’s a small interdisciplinary academic field that studies the intersection of artificial intelligence, autonomy, and ethics. From what I’ve seen it’s completely ignored by Tesla and some other car companies doing work on autonomous cars.

  34. 34.

    J R in WV

    February 3, 2022 at 11:58 am

    We have a Mazda SUV which seems to be a well put together car. But you guys are correct about the automated safety features. Ours will suddenly slow down an lot on the freeway when on cruise when confronted with a curve at the bottom of a steep hill. I personally want the dammed thing to drive the same speed up hill and down. This is West Virginia, the Mountain State, and we have curves even on Interstates and freeways.

    Also jams on the brakes from time to time, I did finally ascertain that the brake lights flash when this happens. That seems dangerous, to jam on the brakes in the left lane in traffic for no real reason…

  35. 35.

    way2blue

    February 3, 2022 at 12:32 pm

    Just to clariy misleading headlines by CNN, AP, WSJ and others—Tesla won’t be physically recalling their cars.  Rather they’re updating the software via WiFi as they on a regular basis.  Still, an odd FSD Beta feature…

  36. 36.

    brantl

    February 3, 2022 at 1:46 pm

    How the hell do they get away with programming a traffic violation in all 50 states?

  37. 37.

    Gravie

    February 3, 2022 at 1:54 pm

    I watched the pilot episode of “American Auto” the other night — it’s pretty funny — and one of the plot points is their discovery that their new “car of the future” self-driving auto doesn’t stop for black people because the car sees them as shadows.

  38. 38.

    Scout211

    February 3, 2022 at 2:03 pm

    @J R in WV:

    I had an experience where the automatic braking system in my Accord suddenly slammed on my brakes as I was almost through an intersection. It apparently  mistook a person in a wheelchair approaching the crosswalk as a vehicle about to collide with me. At first I was in shock but then I figured out how to get the car moving again. I was so lucky that there were no cars driving behind me through that intersection because it definitely would have caused an accident.

    Safety features that aren’t always safe. Scary.

    ETA:  Many people driving the windy country roads out here at night have to turn off the automatic braking system because on some curves, the automatic  braking system mistakenly thinks  oncoming vehicles are head-on through the curves.

  39. 39.

    JaneE

    February 3, 2022 at 2:38 pm

    My Subaru routinely breaks, sometimes hard, when a car in front of me makes a right turn.  It seems to assume that the car will have to stop before the turn is completed.  It is a function of speed, it will do the same thing if I come into the garage a little (or more than a little) faster than usual.  I know I will have to break harder to stop and will actually do that, but the software assumes I won’t adjust.  It almost has me trained to follow at a slightly longer distance in city traffic and enter the garage at at reasonable speed.

    I wonder if the Tesla programmers know that in some states a rolling stop is illegal.  You can and will get a failure to stop citation if a cop sees you.

  40. 40.

    JaneE

    February 3, 2022 at 2:42 pm

    @different-church-lady: I worked with one who was really very nice.  A bit strange, but nice.  His opinion of the Boers was about like yours.

  41. 41.

    The Oracle of Solace

    February 4, 2022 at 12:14 am

    I keep hearing about modern cars with all these features that interfere with driving. I’ve had the same car for 15 years, and after hearing about adaptive cruise control and auto-drive I think I’ll give it up only once we reach the point that replacement parts are in such short supply that they have to be crafted from raw ore.

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