The Latest Tesla Crash Tells Us a Lot About the Risks of Computers on Wheels

Over the weekend, we learned once again that when a Tesla crashes, it is like no other vehicle in an accident. The facts are still trickling in, but what is known is that two middle-aged men died. And according to reports, they somehow set their Model S into motion without a driver, crashing it into a tree at high speed and causing it to explode in flames that took up to four hours to extinguish. Much of the discussion around this strange incident focused on Tesla's Autopilot, a feature Tesla claims is intended only to assist the driver but that critics claim is an oxymoron in the automobile context. After all, the word autopilot connotes sustained fully automatic operation with the human operator out of the loop, an operating mode hitherto used only in aircraft and spacecraft.