Did you see this yesterday? A brand new Tesla Model 3 Highland was involved in an accident in Taman Bukit Serdang, demolishing a concrete block wall that sealed off a housing area – a very common sight here in Malaysia. The collision caused significant damage to the front of the electric sedan and set off the front airbags.
According to the viral Facebook post, the driver, who was coming from dinner, said that the road was too dark for them to see the road ahead. However, the images and video show that the road was brightly lit with street lights, making that excuse more than a little flimsy.
Now, of course, you can make your own conclusions from the incident, bearing in mind that none of us know what exactly caused it. One of the theories being floated about is that Autopilot – which uses the camera-only Tesla Vision system – wasn’t able to prevent the accident, whereas a conventional radar-based autonomous emergency braking system would’ve. This would expose a potential weakness in relying solely on cameras.
Incident at Jalan BS 3/12, Serdang
Customer from Pik Wah Restaurant 碧华楼 ram through brick wall and claim the road is too…Posted by YC Shaun on Saturday, 3 February 2024
It does stand to reason that a radar would’ve been able to detect a solid wall – although it’s likely the radar sensor would’ve needed to corroborate its data with a camera to eliminate false positives. But more importantly, Tesla’s engineers probably didn’t feel the need to make Autopilot recognise a wall coming towards the driver.
In any case, Tesla isn’t the only company to have a camera-based collision prevention system – so does Honda, let’s not forget (to be fair, cars fitted with camera-based Honda Sensing have been involved in their own spate of accidents). Plus, virtually every system that only offers AEB functionality is a camera-only system. So clearly, Tesla Vision isn’t the thing to blame here.
There have also been question marks surrounding the navigation system. A fellow user of the Model 3 posted a video in the comments showing their car’s navigation system putting up directions that go through the wall. Tesla does use map data from Google, but Google Maps doesn’t do this (we’ve tried), so obviously there’s something different – and perhaps flawed – with regard to how the car itself plots its directions.
Then there’s the fact that this particular car was fitted with the Model S’ steering yoke, which may have caused a loss of control (highly unlikely, given that it’s a straight road). And if you take the driver’s purported excuse of the road being too dark at face value (we don’t), you could also make an argument that the Model 3 Highland’s lack of stalks made it difficult to activate the high beams.
In case you were wondering, the high beams are activated by pressing and holding the high beam button on the left spoke of the steering wheel (pressing it once activates the flashers). Stalks or no stalks, however, you should really familiarise yourself with the controls of your own car before you drive it.
All of that is immaterial, of course. You can make all kinds of excuses regarding the (really not) dark road, the Autopilot system, the car’s navigation or the lack of stalks, but the fact of the matter is that as an operator of a two-tonne motor vehicle capable of hitting 200 km/h, your primary job is to pay attention on the road ahead.
That does not change even if you have an advanced semi-autonomous driving system, which is what Autopilot ultimately is. No matter if you have the base Autopilot, the extended system or even the expensive so-called Full Self Driving package (which doesn’t even work in Malaysia), the Model 3 cannot drive itself, which means the sole responsibility of preventing an accident falls on the driver.
It’s stated in the post that the wall has been on that road for close to a decade, and either nobody has hit it before or there have been accidents that have never been reported (probably because the car that hit it wasn’t a Tesla). We should also point out that Malaysian road users are barred from driving hands-free and you will be fined if you’re caught letting your car (whether it’s a Tesla or not) drive for you.
Whether the driver was intoxicated or simply put too much faith in the car’s systems, it’s brutally clear from this incident that Autopilot doesn’t make you immune to collisions. Which means that, just like driving any other car, you have to pay attention to your surroundings whenever you’re on the road – especially when you’re unfamiliar with the area. And of course, don’t just blindly follow your navigation system – whether it’s Waze, Google Maps or your car’s built-in system. It’s just common sense.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Camera still cannot match Lidar. The only good coming our from camera is the cost and nothing else.
Good news is the car is tougher than brick-wall
Good news is Autopilot no need to subscribe
Bad news is cannot CNY showoff already
Showoff a battery toy car that most Malaysians haven’t even heard of?! Most people know what a Proton Saga is, but Tesla? I seriously doubt it’s right up there with a Benz or even Beemer!
The kwai lohs r erecting trade tariffs on Chinese EVs due to lopsided hypocrisy to protect their Evs.
It is time for Msians to reject Tesla,instead of poor Mc dee,where another round of retrenchments r possible.
Go and support Mc Dee n have your favourite burger..jobs r at stake.Ww dont want them to end up resorting to stealing Milo at Mydin.
Solidarity for Palestinians
No to Tesla and Mercedes
Still better than middle kingdom dumping their craps here because their EV graveyards are full.
That’s because your circle of friends are mostly B40.
Do you live under a rock? most Malaysian knows what a Tesla is, especially the younger one.
Me think you jealous.
80 granny knows what a Benz is from 40,000 miles away. Tesla can wipe the ass of Benz! As for most Malaysians who actually know what a Tesla is, so what? It’s not as well known as a Benz! Duuuhhh…even Potong is more well-known, for the wrong reason, of course!
Insurance co. would be glad to pay to get a brand new Tesla ..fixing it is too expensip
Number plate MH 900 says it all….M@H@I…
Eyes got problem?
“MR 900” right?
Ben was using Tesla’s camera to “read” the number plate! That’s why it gave a half-ass answer…one half correct, the other close enough!
Why need to depends on car camera/sensor to drive?..driver no eye?
That’s why you should never buy a battery toy car made with a shoestring budget by a guy who marries as often as he changes his underwear and cares only about making money, thus intentionally omitted the radar and only used cameras only.
if you don’t pay attention on the road, just gantung lesen je. Killers shouldn’t be on the road.
The car is solid. The number plate pass ah? JPJ?
Worst news is…… self upgraded a looked cool yoke steering wheel’ give good news for insurance company and guess what, they will also have the right to read the drive recording…..
Anyone wanna bet the driver was focussing on their phone while letting the car drive on Autopilot?
It is very likely he was trying to figure out the volume control or adjust the air conditioning, which is layered in the big screen!
We have lots of “boleh” drivers here. Whether it’s Tesla or not, those drivers still drive whatever way or ignoring common sense. Also, we have road with sudden “termination” or turns or confusing signs. Of course one may say “oh, it’s been like this ages and no accident”. But for the person not familiar with the road, how would you expect a wall in the middle of the road or a sudden weird T-junction.
RFOL
But more importantly, Tesla’s engineers probably didn’t feel the need to make Autopilot recognise… “a wall coming towards the driver.”
WOW NOW WALLS CAN WALK!!
They can check Tesla log data of what really happened. And do Msian tesla hv the interior camera activated? can find out what the driver was smoking.
The camera based ACC and AEB are unproven useless tech for now.
Can sue TESLA for a new car?
people just can’t get enough of Tesla. see the amount of attentionit’s getting and all the speculations get a life people.
autopilot can crash policeman said come in road block,habis tesla