Tesla’s Autopilot system used to bring nothing but positive attention to the electric vehicle company, but now Autopilot and the more advanced Full Self-Driving (FSD) are the subjects of lawsuits and government investigations. In recently uncovered testimony from a summer 2022 court case, a Tesla engineer has admitted that a widely distributed video purporting to show a Tesla driving itself is actually a fabrication.
The case deals with a fatal 2018 crash that killed Apple engineer Walter Huang. The accident occurred when Huang’s Model X veered into a concrete divider in Autopilot mode. Lawyers for Huang’s family claim that the Tesla misread the lines on the road, causing it to collide with the barrier. It’s unclear why the car, which was outfitted with radar and cameras, didn’t see the stationary block of concrete in time to stop. Tesla blamed Huang’s distraction for the crash, noting that his hands were not on the wheel for the six seconds preceding the crash, in spite of the car’s warnings.
The facts of the case are still up in the air, but lawyers for Huang’s family deposed a Tesla engineer last summer who had some interesting things to say, reports Reuters. At issue is a somewhat famous 2016 video (below) released by Tesla and promoted by CEO Elon Musk that purports to show a Model X driving itself from Menlo Park to Tesla’s headquarters, which was in Palo Alto at the time. Ashok Elluswamy, who runs the Autopilot division at Tesla, admitted during questioning that the 2016 video was faked. Despite Musk’s assurances that “Tesla drives itself,” drivers had to intervene several times during the drive to keep the car on the road, and the vehicle crashed into a fence trying to park. The car was also traveling along a predetermined, fully 3D-mapped route.
Despite this, the video (which is still available on Tesla’s website) states at the beginning that the driver is only there for legal reasons. Elluswamy said the video does not accurately depict the capabilities of Autopilot — it’s actually closer to what Tesla promises for Full Self-Driving. This feature is supposed to navigate from point A to point B with minimal input from drivers. However, FSD is not immune from the kind of accidents that killed Walter Huang, either. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently investigating Tesla’s self-driving features following a series of accidents in which Teslas struck emergency vehicles.
Tesla has long maintained that Autopilot is safe, provided the driver remains engaged at all times. However, with videos like the one above being promoted by the company, many drivers could be overestimating the smarts in their cars.
Now read:
- Tesla Drops Prices as Much as 20% in Bid to Boost Sales
- California Bans Tesla From Calling Its Software Full-Self Driving
- Tesla Releases Full Self-Driving Beta to Everyone in North America
from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://ift.tt/hk1LS05
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