With new technology and innovative companies being the topic of discussion throughout this semester, I was immediately drawn to an article about a lawsuit regarding Tesla and their Autopilot feature.
To summarize the article, Muoio discusses the fact that there is a class-action lawsuit against Tesla claiming that consumers have been misled about the capabilities of their Autopilot 2. It states that the Autopilot feature is “essentially unusable and demonstrably dangerous”.
One of the managing partners of the law firm involved in the lawsuit stated that with a product that Tesla has not designed effectively, they have endangered the lives of tens of thousands of Tesla owners.
The new Autopilot includes features such as lane changing, merging on and off highways, auto park, traffic aware cruise control, and many other driving features.
Tesla is company that is well known for their innovative ideas and forward-thinking designs. The fact that their are wrapped up in a lawsuit leads me to question the future of innovative companies.
One similar example I thought of is regarding something such as the Google Glass, and if an invention like this had successfully taken off as a smart device, what kinds of problems could have arisen as a result? In a hypothetical situation, people may have sued Google for it being distracting to them and causing them danger, when it would have been their ultimate decision to use the technology.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Will this lawsuit against Tesla put a damper on the future of innovation? Will Tesla be hesitant to continue creating innovative technologies if it is going to draw the attention of lawsuits and lead to potential danger to their customers?
I fear that the future of innovative technology may be impacted by this and other similar issues that may arise as a result of technological advancements. Companies may not want to advance their designs or their technology out of fear of creating something potentially dangerous or attracting expensive lawsuits.
Let me know if you have any further thoughts on this topic!
Article: http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-class-action-lawsuit-autopilot-2-2017-4
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