As technology advances in today’s society, there is a never-ending change in the way we operate on a daily basis. Elon Musk, the genius who input Autopilot in Tesla, has now branched off into other automobile companies. 

You might be wondering, well, what is autopilot? “Autopilot enables your car to steer, accelerate, and brake automatically within its lane. Current Autopilot features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous.”

This is revolutionary to the way we operate vehicles. 

Currently, there are 55 companies who have permits to test Autopilot capabilities in California alone. All of the following vehicles have similar autopilot features; BWI 74i, Mercedes-Benz S class sedan, and Toyota Corolla. 

For a list of additional “best” cars with Autopilot, check out this website. 

While this is an exciting advancement in cars, this could form a dangerous road hazard. For example, Autopilot is an assistance feature rather than autonomous. This means that your car won’t drive itself. For customers, this is a common misconception.

Tesla has repeatedly said that Autopilot makes their vehicles safer, yet more reports of unaware drivers come in. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): “Over all, the national rate was one accident for every 498,000 miles driven in 2017.”  

Of course, accidents that occur in Teslas can often be linked to user error. “If you own a Tesla, definitely don’t text and drive — or play a mobile game — when you’re using autopilot. That’s potentially even more dangerous, since you might feel a false sense of security.”

While Autopilot is a convenient feature, it can be misused by customers. Tesla states, “While no car can prevent all accidents, we work every day to try to make them much less likely to occur.” 

Tesla puts maximum effort into their vehicle safety design, but at the end of the day, it is the driver’s responsibility. 

A fatal example of operator error is seen here. “An Apple employee who died after his Tesla car hit a concrete barrier was playing a video game at the time of the crash, investigators believe. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the car had been driving semi-autonomously using Tesla’s Autopilot software.”

Over a period of three years, divided by quarters, Tesla’s crash rate has decreased from 492,000 to 479,000. While that’s progress, 479,000 accidents due to Autopilot is way too many. 

Overestimating abilities of technology like autopilot puts your life and the lives of others at risk. So, you should think twice before you put your money into a vehicle just because of Autopilot features.