- Tesla is voluntarily recalling over 350,000 of their vehicles due to issues with the self-driving-assistance software. The fix will be shipped “over the air”, meaning the software will be updated remotely and the hardware does not need to be addressed.
- Missy Cummings, a professor in the computer-science department at George Mason University and a former NHTSA regulator, sees the voluntary nature of the recall as a positive sign that Tesla is willing to cooperate with regulators. She has previously argued that the US should proceed more cautiously on autonomous vehicles.
- Cummings also views this recall as a software story: NHTSA is entering an interesting—perhaps uncharted—regulatory space, where the question arises, how do we ensure that when manufacturers do over-the-air updates to safety-critical systems, it fixes the problems that it was supposed to fix and doesn’t introduce new safety-related issues?
- Cummings is a conservative person when it comes to self-certification. She believes that a preapproval process for anything with artificial intelligence in it should be in place and that AI is a nondeterministic technology that needs more rigorous testing and care than a basic algorithm.
- Cummings is passionate about safety and wants to ensure that the technology on the road is safe and effective, even if it means she has to endure harassment from the Musk fandom.
Published February 19, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Caroline Mimbs Nyce’s original post Why the Tesla Recall Matters
