First Of Many?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36680043
Back to the drawing board methinks.

[naomi24]

Probably.

[jambutty]

Never thought it was a good idea in the first place.

[douglas9401]

I've never been a fan myself. If you don't want to drive, take public transport rather than spend tens of thousands of pounds on an accident waiting to happen.

[naomi24]

Nor me.

[Baldric]

///the first death potentially caused by self-driving technology.///

///The driver of a Tesla car died///

Confused.com . . . . (Sad someone died, not the best idea ever imo)

[Gromit]

This is clearly a set back, but 92 people died yesterday (and every day) in cars driven by people (in the US). Car driven by people have a very poor safety record.

[Baldric]

I reckon most people can tell the difference between a tractor/trailer and sky though.

[jno]

human-powered cars often go back to the drawing board after mishaps, so I don't see why this should be any different.

[youngmafbog]

And the Google car managed to hit a bus.

The technology has to come, but at what price?

[Old_Geezer]

A tragedy but in fairness individuals in non-self driving cars get killed on the roads every day. Means the design isn't perfect yet. What is ?

[baza]

Not for me , having seen one person reverse out of my drive and hit a parked car in the road and another reverse into my drive and almost hit a Rowan tree, both were drivers with many years under their belts. Lots more work to do I think.

[Gromit]

The car being in a fatal crash does not mean the car was to blame.
By the sounds of it, it wasn't.
The car and a trailer were in collision. Sounds like the Tesler was being overtaken by the towed trailer, and the trailer driver didn't allow for the extra length.
There was a similar accident in 2003 on the M56 in Manchester when a minibus towing a trailer did the same thing and clipped the car it was overtaking. 7 died, but the driver of the car hit crashed into the hard shoulder and survived.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/3054867.stm

In this instance, the autonomous car did not take evasive action to prevent being hit. The driver can take control anytime in a Tesler just by taking hold of the wheel, so the human driver failed as well.

[ToraToraTora]

it was the car's auto pilot lane changing feature that was confused by a white sided trailer against a bright sky. Great they'll be ok at night then!