Tesla-Owning Airline Pilot Explains Why Drivers Are Still Responsible When Autopilot Is Engaged

An airline pilot familiar with aviation autopilot systems claims drivers, and not Tesla’s own Autopilot gadgetry, are responsible for the operation of the vehicle.

In a post to a private Facebook group, the pilot, who owns a Tesla Model Y and optioned his car with the $10k Full Self-Driving (FSD) package, suggested that drivers, and not carmakers, should shoulder the blame for any accident.

“I love the autopilot in my Model Y!” the pilot said. “It reduces workload. It increases my situational awareness. It helps me mitigate risks. It makes my driving experience safer. But I recognize it for what it is – another means for ME to control the vehicle.”

The pilot said that Tesla, and Tesla drivers, need to improve training on Autopilot, and referenced a 2013 airline disaster in which Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed on final approach to Incheon Airport in South Korea killing three people and injuring 187.

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In that case a National Transportation Board (NTSB) investigation concluded that the flight crew were ultimately responsible in part due to the pilot’s ‘inadvertent deactivation of automatic airspeed control’.

“The NTSB holds the operator (pilot) responsible for the proper manipulation of the aircraft controls, including the autopilot, when an accident occurs,” the pilot said in his post. “The same is true for Tesla drivers. We are ultimately responsible.”

The pilot’s comments will be warmly received by safety campaigners who have rebuked Tesla for overstating the autonomous capabilities of its ‘self-driving’ technology. Last summer a German court ruled that Tesla’s ‘Autopilot’ term was misleading and it was no longer able to use the word in marketing material in the country.

Tesla does warn visitors to its website that cars fitted with Autopilot and the $10,000 FSD package still require supervision. But the pilot seems hopeful that Tesla’s system will improve, even if, we presume, he won’t ever be fully happy to kick back and watch a movie while his Model Y does the heavy lifting.

“We even sprung for the full self-driving mode in hopes that functionality will be expanded,” he said. “However, in the meantime, we need to train better and remember that the autopilot is simply another means for US to control the vehicle.”