Tesla semi involved in multiple fatality accident in Nevada

My 2020 Cascadia has all those things, It's a Diesel...

 

Except every once in a while you hear about one of their cars having a fatality crash because it drove under a semi's trailer because it didn't see it (and the car driver had it on autopilot so they could take a nap before work)

Mine has it too, and it doesn't panic when an idiot changes lanes 10' in front of you, but goes ballistic if you don't brake check the people behind you when that same vehicle gets 200' away. Plus it just loves to randomly panic stop because it picked up the ghost object in the middle of the road out in the middle of nowhere (that isn't there). Just to keep you on your toes.

 

I've heard these stories for a decade about these radar systems constantly slamming on the brakes, picking up overpasses or ghost objects, beeping all day long, sending messages about following to close, speeding, hard braking, hard acceleration, and list of other things drivers say are annoying. So, when I bought my truck used, and it had all the safety features, I was almost going to have the dealer disable all of it. But, I thought, let's see what these systems are really like. I was pleasantly surprised that NONE of the things I'd heard would happen constantly, weren't happening at all. I quickly realized if you're an AGGRESSIVE driver, yes, these systems will annoy you until you change you're driving habits, quit, or get fired. That's what they are intended to do. But, if you drive DEFENSIVELY, like the Smith System or some version of that, you won't even know you have a radar system on your truck. In fact, you will probably embrace it because these systems also come with other things like Adaptive Cruise Control, you can see how fast the vehicle in front of you is going so you'll know if they start speeding up as soon as they see you coming up on them, or when they pass you how fast they are going, (which is interesting in Ca. with 55 mph speed limit for tucks) and how many feet they are away from you. As far as sending messages about overspeeding, this has a parameter that can be adjusted as far as how much over, length of time over, etc. Hard Braking and Hard Acceleration are the same thing. Parameter can be adjusted as far as intensity. I'm not aiming this at you Supernackbar. This is to anyone that has these features on their truck and hates them.

 

The part that pisses me off the most about it is, the #### e-coast. Someone changes lanes a little too close so you instinctively ease off the throttle to get some extra space, then it instantly goes into e-coast, then gives you a distance warning beep. If you use low jake, it drops 2 gears like you're planning on coming to a stop...and if you use the service brakes, you need to slow down quickly because a little slow down still gets you the beep. The e-coast crap is also annoying (for you and the people following you) because it goes into coast before you get to the top of even a slight hill and will slow you down 10+ mph below your set speed, then when it's coasting down the other side, it doesn't re-engage until you're 10+ over your set speed, then goes into oh-crap mode, drops 2 gears and throws on high jakes and redlines the motor. I have had the adaptive cruise try to commit suicide that way and actually have it overspeed it's engine. You have to watch these trucks, their ecm is almost as dumb as a box of rocks.

As far as having a dealer disable the safety nanny, they won't do it. If something happened and you had a wreck, then they would be included in any liability settlement.

 

If the company actually gave a hoot about it all those parameters can be changed. I had my Peterbilt set at -3/+3. If I was coasting I’d always get on the throttle right before the bottom and get a few mph over my set speed.