Why Tesla Model 3 Needs a Black Box

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If Tesla Model 3 going to be more autonomous and the trend is to make the Autopilot fully autonomous then the Model 3, Model S and Model X need a Black Box, just like airplanes.

Airplanes have black boxes and it may be a good idea for Tesla Model 3 to have a Black Box as well, or at least something similar. In it Your Model 3 can log all the driving data.

For example, how fast you are driving, your driving habits and a built-in camera could record the road. I know this seems like an intrusion of privacy, but don't the airplanes already have it? It may be a good thing when you are going to put an autopilot for untrained and undisciplined drivers.

A Tesla Black Box, or call it a "data collector," can be a removable or even a swappable hard drive, which can be removed and swapped if you were going to buy another Tesla and would like to put your data box in your new car.

As a result, whatever happens during an accident, the data box will survive, giving the authorities more clues, as well as the car companies to improve their products, just like aircraft manufacturers do. Wouldn't something like this be useful in the recent Tesla accident, which involved the Autopilot?

I am sure Tesla already does something similar to this, but I am unsure about a video collection of driving data. More important question is will it record the conversations in the car? That can be switched of and on at the discretion of the driver.

I am not in favor of this, but if you are going to put an autopilot in a car, is it not safe to have a data collected on the autopilot?

Submitted by Craig Good (not verified) on July 16, 2016 - 5:42PM

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First, both Teslas and most new cars already have some form of this. How do you think Tesla knew how Autopilot categorized the semi trailer in the Florida crash?

Second, just about every non-pilot I run into has an exaggerated idea of what an autopilot does. It just maintains course, altitude, and airspeed. Autopilot is a good metaphor, because airplanes that use them are not autonomous. It's a pilot aid.

Last, flight data recorders aren't there because the plane has an autopilot. They are there because airliners operate in a complex environment and, while accidents are vanishingly rare, a fair percentage of the accidents are fatal. They are also "big ticket" transportation.