US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg on Monday said human drivers must pay attention at all times after videos emerged of people wearing what appeared to be Apple’s recently released Vision Pro headset while driving Teslas.
Buttigieg responded on Twitter/X to a video that had more than 24m views of a Tesla driver who appeared to be gesturing with his hands to manipulate a virtual reality field.
Despite their names, Tesla’s assisted driving features – Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving – do not mean the vehicles are fully autonomous, Buttigieg said Monday on social media.
“Reminder – ALL advanced driver assistance systems available today require the human driver to be in control and fully engaged in the driving task at all times,” Buttigieg said.
Aren’t these new Apple things AR devices you can see through, though? You could have a HUD that assists with driving.
Oh, you “could.” But I’ll bet you these individuals aren’t. These morons are looking at videos or scrolling the web or some other stupid attention diverting shit.
I’m not sure there even exists any kind of hypothetical “AR driving assistance” app for the Apple Vision. And there probably never will, for the obvious massive liability reasons.
The issue is the government’s biggest concern isn’t safety, it’s being able to legislate those being unsafe. Which can actually be conflicting, because even if a VR headset showing directions on the road itself is less distracting than looking at a separate phone/GPS- a cop doesn’t know if you’re doing that, or if you have YouTube in the corner of your eye.
They’re not true AR devices, they’re VR headsets masquerading as AR, you’re still just watching a video of the world around you. As good as the Vision Pro’s passthrough video, it’s still passthrough video and doesn’t have the same resolution as our eyes would have, plus it probably blocks out at least some of your peripheral vision. I do think having a HUD while driving would be nice, but it would need to be able to restrict any sort of extraneous content out (like youtube videos or whatever) and ONLY show information needed for driving (maybe have music/audio controls at most).
the only “HUD” I want while driving is one that dynamically dims LED headlights while leaving the rest of my view unaltered.
Speedo and tach projected in the bottom edge of the windscreen is really nice tho.
Yeah and what would you do if the device malfunctions or runs put of battery? You’d literally be blind.
You take it off… It’s not bolted to your head. What do people who wear glasses do if they fog up while driving?
Yeah, sure. You just “take it off” while driving a +2000kg metal block that’s circulating at 40 to 160km/h. It’s totally fine to lose control over your friggin eyes while operating a machine like that.
I’m sorry but you’re either a troll or just very dumb.
If this prompts the US government, why is the rising pedestrian deaths not promoting action?
Well, the actual causes of pedestrian deaths (big dumb vehicles, infrastructure that more or less necessitates personal vehicle ownership) are the same things that the auto industry lobbies hard for.
See General Motors and jaywalking
“Reminder – ALL advanced driver assistance systems available today require the human driver to be in control and fully engaged in the driving task at all times,” Buttigieg said.
This is not entirely true anymore. If you’re in a 2024 Mercedes EQS Sedan driving through Nevada at less than 40 mph, you are allowed to take your hands off the wheel and your eyes of the road.
Lol that’s oddly specific.
Test road?
Normal roads, just only in traffic jams.
Same in parts of Germany.
It’s actually more specific than that. It also only works if there’s a car directly in front of you.
No, Mercedes is the first one to market with a level 3 (fully self driving) system, which is available with their top of the line sedan.
They applied for certification and got it from the state of Nevada. (Edit: And California)The system itself is limited to 40mph.
If I recall correctly the big difference being that Mercedes is the first manufacturer to take legal liability for an accident while their software is driving (under the specific circumstances), which is pretty big IMO.
Then it’s not a “driver assistance” system, that’s full autonomy.
Full autonomy would include all roads and speed limits.
No it wouldn’t. It just requires that the car is fully autonomous. Like it says in the words.
Let’s leave the systems definitions to the actual engineers, thanks.
I suggest you go educate yourself about the levels of vehicle autonomy before you erroneously label systems you don’t understand.
LOL no let’s not. If the system is assisting you in driving, it’s a driver assistance system. If the car is driving itself, it is fully autonomous. It’s literally spelled out in the name. You don’t need an engineering degree to see that, just an elementary level reading comprehension.
I’d suggest you read a fucking dictionary before gatekeeping shit you don’t understand and spinning up a new account explicitly to point out why you think someone on the internet is wrong.
Wow, is Mercedes advertising that at all?
Engadget tried it in LA in September ‘23. (Piped)
Interestingly, still can’t use your phone due to CA law - but can watch videos, browse the web, as long as you stay <=40 MPH (65 km/h).
And it’s Mercedes’ fault if it crashes!
Same for the Waymo cars. You can actually sit in the back seat and let it take you to your destination.
This is one of the things about assisted driving tech that’s always confused me. It seems unlikely that we will have fully self-driving cars soon, but the illusion of being able to be absent while driving seems really dangerous. It doesn’t seem like an improvement to me to remove the human element from most of the driving tasks while also requiring that human to spring into action seemingly at random.
Like don’t get me wrong, people do dumb shit on the road with or without assistance, but having a system that requires human involvement at a zero-to-hero level seems like a bad system.
Then again, based on this actual content, maybe people just shouldn’t be allowed to own vehicles full stop.
You are of course correct but the problem is that Tesla are irresponsible, shocking I know.
All the other car companies are holding back their self-driving tech until it actually 100% works, but Tesla are like, nah we’re going to use our customers as bata testers. So what if they die they’ve already bought the car.
It seems unlikely that we will have fully self-driving cars soon
Maybe not from Tesla, but Mercedes already sells 2 cars which have limited Level 3 self driving functionality. Up to 50 mph you are legally allowed to divert your attention from the road and do something else, you just need to be ready to take back control within 10 seconds of the car telling you to do so. Mercedes is so confident in that system that they are taking legal liability for any crashes caused while the car is in self driving mode. And Mercedes is already planning to get the car certified for speeds up to 75mph soon, so it will be usable at regular highway speeds
I find it baffling that people are so eager to put their faith in this shit 😂
I’d sooner place it there than with humans.
Have you been in the road?? Human drivers are fucking scary.
Well, so far these cars have driven a lot of miles without crashes. They don’t need to be perfect, they just need to be better than a human driver, which is not a very high bar to set
I fucking love people
It’s like they’re competing for being the most punchable.
Sometimes I fear that we deserve our impending extinction.
It’s Fred. Don’t worry about him at all, he’s really good on speed runs up and down the 5fwy. He always gets home with extra tokens and a good 5000 points.
I wish my Toyota gave me points for driving it!
viral videos
Single video…
And it looks fake, honestly. If you see videos of YouTube reviewers using the device, they do way less poking and tapping and like, weird throwing of the hands that the person in the OP video is doing.
Same with some of the other videos of people walking across streets and through traffic.
The media and public do love an exaggeration
Dumbasses, the videos are fake viral marketing.
Marketing for what? Being incredibly stupid?
Marketing for the Apple VR, which is working, because now we have hundreds of news articles, social media posts and now the goverment talking about it.
So you’re saying Apple paid these people?
I really don’t think these are staged. All its doing is making Vision Pro users look like assholes
The movements in the video definitely look exaggerated especially the wavy hands at the end
I don’t deny that it’s probably staged. Imo it’s more likely just rage bait
The thing doesn’t work when you’re moving and the cameras detect that your surroundings are moving. It is 100% staged.
Source? I heard that it’s usable on an airplane
Maybe that’s the point.
Buttigieg.
Heh.
If you want a “self driving vehicle,” buy a horse.
or just take a train.
That’s great if there’s a train that goes where you need to go. For most people in the US that happens approximately never.
If only something could be done about it but it seems for some reason the laws of physics don’t allow trains in north America
It’s a tragedy, really.
That’s actually true in a way. Shit here is really far apart.
That’s exactly the Environment Trains were designed for?
That’s why the first intercontinental travel was trains. Over distance trains a substantially more efficient than car because of rolling resistance and differentials.
That’s why I say the laws of physics don’t apply because we do the objectively worse thing because the government hates building infrastructure.
The US for instance is about the same size as China yet China has lots of rail because the government will focus on infrastructure.
Yes, trains are great for long distances. Where they suck is trying to get people from point to point in a sprawling city designed around the assumption that everyone has a car. Cities are so spread out that getting within walking distance of most destinations by train would require an unreasonably large rail system.
Let’s be honest, cars suck at that too and that’s why we’re perpetually dealing with traffic and widening roads.
But let’s take Phoenix AZ, the premium suburb sprawl. The light rail is pretty damn good and with a bike it’s pretty painless evern if you need to get a mile or two from the light rail.
The main issue with using bikes like this is all the big ass cars and drivers who will not share the road. If we had dedicated bike infrastructure leading to rail it would work just fine even with suburban sprawl.
I know this because I did this on the light rail in Phoenix.
Emphasis on “in the U.S.” :(
Also the only place that stupid fucking Tesla truck is legal.
Technicality! Its available in canada so your statement is factually false.
How about a pig with a saddle?
A Mountie?
Ayyy 🤌🏼
Look at Mr Fancy pants with horse money over here.
I always wondered were there less accidents back then? Horses probably actively try not to run into things right? But they can also get scared and go crazy so who knows
Horses also leave horseshit wherever they go.
Not a plus.
You know, so do Tesla and Musk fanboys. What a curious coincidence.
Riding horses or in horse drawn carriages was banned in the city of Rome multiple times in antiquity, because of accidents involving two horses.
Cars will come to a stop, eventually, on their own. Horses get spooked and run, causing a much bigger problem.
Mary Todd Lincoln once jumped from a carriage after her driver was thrown from the seat and the horse began to speed away. The resulting injury left her with migraines for the rest of her life.
There are stories from horses bringing home their drunk, sleeping ‘drivers’ because they knew their way home.
I’d guess there were less alcohol related accidents…?
The complete disregard for road safety and personal well-being (not to mention the well-being of others) never ceases to amaze me.
I see several videos every day on social media of people taking videos while driving.
Saw another guy doing a (very unimportant) delivery with a trailer across state in a clapped-out old van on the 1 day of the year there was ice on the road, and predictably crashed badly.
Between this and the crApple VR thingy on the NYC subway, this makes me wonder for the fate of humanity.
We embrance technology in stupid ways. It’s a thing we always do, It’s pretty hilarious aside from the death part.
When cars were invented, there were no traffic laws, people drove drunk and got in tumbling car wrecks, ran over people constantly. They were much faster than foot, carriage, etc.
When cell phones became affordable, people talked-and-drove so much and wrecks went up.
When texting became popular, people texted and drove and wrecks went up even more.
When smartphones became approachable to the masses, people drive around scrolling web sites rather than driving.
When social video media became popular and usable on mobile broadband, people drive around watching videos rather than driving.
Now VR headset, and on and on.
I see a couple takeaways here:
- We really hate driving, like a lot, at the expense of our own safety. Why doesn’t America especially embrace public transport. We have over a century of documented data indicating how much we all apparently hate driving so much we’ll try to die instead of driving.
- We humans are really stupid about risk assessment, but eventually society corrects the stupidity. Seems to be something we just keep doing ad infinitum and we’re just cool losing a few people along the way until we correct. It’s just odd.
