The case is believed to be the first time that U.S. prosecutors have brought felony charges against a motorist who was using a partially automated driving system.
  • PatFusty@lemm.eeEnglish
    1235·
    1 year ago

    The guy was going through a suburb at 75 mph blowing through stop lights. Ofcourse he has to pay, im surprised hes not getting jail time. This has nothing to do with the car, thats just gross negligence

      • BossDj@lemm.eeEnglish
        42·
        1 year ago

        I wonder if Tesla had this section of road mapped as freeway. Especially since it rolled through a red.

        “Suburb” in LA is a very loose term

        I would think that the guy is just lying, but Tesla would call that out REAL quick.

  • qooqie@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1094·
    1 year ago

    Wow the value of a life I guess. I don’t really know what can come close to the value of a life, but this doesn’t seem like it.

    • burliman@lemm.eeEnglish
      4014·
      1 year ago

      What would be the value of life then? I’ll save you the answer: no matter how big the number you say, someone else will say bigger. Until it becomes priceless, which is the answer.

      However death and accidental death isn’t always avoidable. And when we pin the fault on someone we cannot expect to say “priceless” is what they owe the victim’s family. So we assign an amount of money or time that hurts, and call it good.

      Doesn’t mean life is worth that. And saying so doesn’t help anyone.

      • a4ng3l@lemmy.worldEnglish
        601·
        1 year ago

        Sure but even looking a only the financial produce of one person for a family dwarfs the comical 23k here. And that’s not even looking at the emotional side of things. 23k is straight insulting imho.

        • ghastly_03_startup@infosec.pubEnglish
          154·
          1 year ago

          Seeing as they were using the now being recalled Tesla auto pilot during the auto accident, it may not entirely be the drivers fault. This may be part of the rational behind the judgement.

          • AFaithfulNihilist@lemmy.worldEnglish
            32·
            1 year ago

            Tesla should be out millions for this. The autopilot feature is a gimmick and not at all transparent. They’re beta testing on the public and people are dying because of it. This is a corporate decision that needs to have corporate consequences over and above legal ones. People shouldn’t just be getting minor fines, they should be going to prison and losing absolutely everything.

            • MNByChoice@midwest.socialEnglish
              7·
              1 year ago

              Consistent and clear pattern of lying to everyone, minimizing, and shifting blame with clear motivation of personal profits.

              Fully agree on prison time.

        • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.worldEnglish
          23·
          1 year ago

          That’s life insurances job, this would be on top of life insurance, and is more about where the money comes than where it is going.

          • onion@feddit.deEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            You look at different jobs, how high the risk of dying is and how much they pay, and work out from that how much more pay people demand for say a 1% risk increase. Then you scale that up to 100% risk.

            So if you were to work an average job no one has ever survived, and you died on the day you retire, you would’ve earned those 12mil

      • TenderfootGungi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        71·
        1 year ago

        True. But what if Tesla has to pay a billion for producing software that runs people over? They probably would not have beta software on the road.

    • Neato@kbin.social
      5·
      1 year ago

      That was the penalty for the felony charge for the driver of the car that ran off the highway into a surface street. It’s almost certain that drivers insurance also paid out their maximum.

      In addition, Tesla is recalling all those cars to change the system that pretends to ensure a driver using autopilot is actually paying attention.

      And a civil suit will likely follow from the 2 victims families.

    • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.netEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      That is just the fine, the families are suing the driver and Tesla. Here’s hoping the Tesla suit gives them the real prize: the death of a company.

      (I know it won’t happen but a guy can dream.)

    • ladicius@lemmy.worldEnglish
      242·
      1 year ago

      Germany the same. Small fine, three month without license, that’s it for killing a human being.

      • Thorny_Insight@lemm.eeEnglish
        113·
        1 year ago

        If we’re talking about an honest accident then how long do you think the jail term should be?

        • sbv@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          171·
          1 year ago

          “honest accident” is the crux of the question. If the driver was doing everything perfectly and some other party was entirely responsible for the accident, not much (maybe none?).

          But, at least in my corner of Canada, most drivers are not behaving responsibly or adhering to the law. Speeding, following too closely, illegally passing, and using phones while driving are common. If a driver kills someone while doing something overtly dangerous, they deserve jail time.

          • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.ggEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            I hate that speed(ing) always gets lumped in whenever “dangerous behavior” comes up. Going faster than an arbitrary road sign says you should isn’t inherently dangerous.

            • Going faster than the arbitrary road sign can be dangerous.
            • Going the speed the arbitrary road sign says can be dangerous.
            • Going slower than the arbitrary road sign can be dangerous.

            It’s about the conditions of the road, paying attention, signaling to other drivers what you’re trying to do, and being prepared for people and animals to do something dumb.

            • following too closely
            • using phones while driving

            These things are on a whole other level than speeding or “illegally” passing. But the person who can’t keep their car centered in the lane, wrecks every other winter, doesn’t use their turn signal, doesn’t notice an ambulance right behind them, and drives too close to the car in front of them will say “I’m a GOOD driver because I don’t speed. Shame on all these bad drivers that pass me!”

            Even worse some of those “GOOD” non-speeding drivers will try to “police the roads” and prevent people from getting around them which has literally resulted in completely pointless deaths during emergencies.

            • sbv@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              Googling around, it looks like there’s a strong relationship between increased speed and accident severity. The reasons cited are increased kinetic energy of the vehicle, decreased effectiveness of the built-in safety equipment, and a higher risk of rollover. It’s particularly dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists.

              Increased speed also increases the risk of an accident, since it reduces the amount of time drivers have to react, and increases the vehicles stopping distance.

              From

              (Interestingly, speeding decreases fuel efficiency, but that isn’t what the original post was about)

              • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.ggEnglish
                1·
                1 year ago

                Yes, but in Texas you’ll find the interstate speed limit is 85 and in Ohio it was 65, now it’s 70.

                There’s not some fundamentally crazy difference between Ohio and Texas roads that results in Texas accepting 20mph higher speed limits than the rate Ohio was using within the last 10 years or so.

                There is a history of speed limits for fuel efficiency and scarcity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Maximum_Speed_Law. Which is more evidence that speed limits do not inherently correspond to safety. Driving the limit, over the limit, or under the limit doesn’t “magically” make you safer.

                Sure, if you’re in an accident two objects traveling faster are going to cause more damage to each other than two objects traveling slower. However, getting into that accident in the first place has little to do with speed and a lot to do with situational awareness and giving yourself enough time to stop in case of emergency (i.e. how close you’re following the car in front of you, how fast you’re passing kids on the sidewalk, etc).

                You’ll note speed is always blamed for increasing severity (i.e., it’s a factor in the severity of the accident). Unfortunately the links don’t work anymore to get to the underlying source but https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/2015/09/18/is-driving-faster-safer/ states “A study conducted by the Florida Department of Transportation says that accidents that were caused by speeding is actually 2.2%.” The Autobahn is another great example. Speed is very rarely cited as the primary cause … because speed isn’t really the issue.

                We should be focusing on issues that actually cause accidents like tailgating, blocking the left lane, failing to signal, etc.

        • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.caEnglish
          93·
          1 year ago

          If it were an honest accident then nothing. If it were due to neglect or lack of due diligence then maybe a few months of of weekend jail or month of full time jail.

          • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            For killing someone? Causing someone’s death due to negligence is only worth a month of jail to you?

        • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
          23·
          1 year ago

          If we’re talking about an honest accident

          There is no such thing.

      • Pechente@feddit.deEnglish
        5·
        1 year ago

        Holy shit, really? Never looked into it but judging by how people drive here (lots of people on their phones while driving, missing red lights all the time) it certainly doesn’t seem like there are severe consequences for any wrongdoings.

  • Alchemy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    586·
    1 year ago

    Anyone else tired of beta testing Tesla’s garbage just by being outside on the roads near these vehicles?

    • RushingSquirrel@lemm.eeEnglish
      311·
      1 year ago

      Human beings controlling cars are extremely dangerous. Drunk drivers, racing, going through red lights and stops, speeding, not paying attention, etc. No need for autopilot for the streets to be dangerous for pedestrians. Autopilot keeps the car in line, which is already way safer than most 100% human-controlled accidents.

      And again, the driver is responsible to keep their eyes on the road, even when using cruise-control or any sort of driving assistance.

  • Commiunism@lemmy.wtfEnglish
    51·
    1 year ago

    There’s this saying about how if something is punishable by a fine, then it’s only illegal for poor people.

    I don’t even have to finish this do I

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    1 year ago

    You honor, I actually didn’t wack anyone with this self actuating axe. I bought it and I told it to go chop wood. The people just happened to be too close to the axe. Yeah I was holding the axe but I wasn’t actually putting any pressure. The tail was wagging the dog in other words.

    Ok so $10,000.00. Fine? Oh alright I guess that’ll teach me not to buy autonomous axes.

      • aeharding@lemmy.worldEnglish
        101·
        1 year ago

        Part of the reason why you don’t lose your license for killing someone with a car in the US is because it’s much more of a ‘punishment’ because of how car dependent the US is.

        Also, keep in mind a lot of trips are 3 miles or less in the US, and most drive it, despite wanting alternatives to driving.

        If someone is trying to get from A to B in a 2 mile trip and the government basically mandates people to drive that, can you really blame them if they end up killing someone accidentally? What if they accidentally kill themselves smashing into a tree? You might assign some of the blame to their driving, but would that solve anything in the long term? a large part of the blame should be assigned to this insane transportation system we’ve built where everyone needs to drive 2 miles to pick up a bag of milk.

        TLDR prevention, not blame will reduce traffic violence.

        • kool_newt@lemm.eeEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          I think many don’t use the alternatives because there are significant challenges vs using a car you’re already paying for.

          I’d love to bicycle but it’s just not safe.