If you’ve ever found yourself slavishly returning to an app to keep a streak alive, you’ll be as worried about this as I am.
Tesla is using streak-psychology to encourage drivers to rely on Full Self-Driving (Supervised) mode.
Cars display how many days and kilometers the driver has used FSD without intervention.
If the driver taps the brakes or turns the steering wheel, the streak resets to zero.
Surely people won’t prioritise their streak over their safety?
Don’t be so sure.
When the US National Transportation Safety Board studied 46 plane evacuations, it found nearly half of passengers tried to take a bag with them, even when their life was on the line.
And selfies have killed more people than sharks.
Between 2008 and 2021 there were 379 selfie deaths worldwide, more than four times the number of shark attack deaths. Falls from height were the single biggest cause, all for a photo.
Rationally, Tesla’s streak shouldn’t make a difference to the decisions people make.
Behaviourally, it does.
Refs:
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https://www.news.com.au/technology/motoring/new-cars/experts-warn-teslas-new-selfdriving-game-could-make-australian-roads-dangerous/news-story/4f7d679b04697677f41374332dbbfa53
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National Transportation Safety Board. (2000). Emergency Evacuation of Commercial Airplanes. Safety Study NTSB/SS-00/01. Washington, DC: NTSB.
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Flaherty, G. T., & Choi, J. (2022). The "selfie" phenomenon: reducing the risk of harm while using smartphones during international travel. Journal of Travel Medicine.
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