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US probes Tesla's Full Self-Driving software after fatal crash

(www.reuters.com)
410 points jjulius | 1 comments | 18 Oct 24 16:01 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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rKarpinski ◴[19 Oct 24 17:08 UTC] No.41889014[source]▶
'Pedestrian' in this context seems pretty misleading

"Two vehicles collided on the freeway, blocking the left lane. A Toyota 4Runner stopped, and two people got out to help with traffic control. A red Tesla Model Y then hit the 4Runner and one of the people who exited from it. "

edit: Parent article was changed... I was referring to the title of the NPR article.

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neom ◴[19 Oct 24 17:14 UTC] No.41889056[source]▶
That is the correct use of pedestrian as a noun.
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varenc ◴[19 Oct 24 17:28 UTC] No.41889154[source]▶
By a stricter definition, a pedestrian is one who travels by foot. Of course, they are walking, but they’re traveling via their car, so by some interpretations you wouldn’t call them a pedestrian. You could call them a “motorist” or a “stranded vehicle occupant”.

For understanding the accident it does seem meaningful that they were motorists that got out of their car on a highway and not pedestrians at a street crossing. (Still inexcusable of course, but changes the context)

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1. neom ◴[19 Oct 24 17:51 UTC] No.41889330[source]▶
As far as I am aware, pes doesn't carry an inherent meaning of travel. Pedestrian just means foot on, they don't need to be moving, they're just not in carriage. As an aside, distinguishing a person's mode of presence is precisely what reports aim to capture.

(I also do tend to avoid this level of pedantry, the points here are all well taken to be clear. I do think the original poster was fine in their comment, I was just sayin' - but this isn't a cross I would die on :))