In 2016, Tesla released a video demonstrating the capabilities of the then-newly announced Autopilot. For the time, the technology was particularly impressive, especially since the driver in the car never touches the steering wheel. Problem: the whole video is just a staging required by Elon Musk.
When Tesla first presented its self-driving system, it was a small earthquake that caused the automotive world. In 2016, the manufacturer published a video with a catchy introduction: “The person in the driver’s seat is only there for legal reasons. It does nothing at all. The car drives itself. » This is followed by a collection of maneuvers showing the impressive capabilities of the Autopilot, without said person touching the steering wheel once.
Breathtaking, isn’t it? Well, everything is false. This is Ashok Elluswamy, the director of Autopilot software himself who says so. The revelation took place in the context of a lawsuit against Tesla, following an accident that claimed the death of an Apple engineer. According to Ashok Elluswamy, Elon Musk would have at the time demanded that his teams create a whole staginge to make the video believable. But, still according to the latter, the video does not present the real capabilities of the Autopilot.
Autopilot is not as advanced as Tesla claims in this video.
To do this, Tesla engineers recreated a 3D map of a route selected in advance, in the Menlo Park, California area, not far from the firm’s headquarters, located at the time in Palo Alto. But this did not prevent various drivers taking turns at the wheel to take control of the Model X to avoid a collision. According to Ashok Elluswamy, one of the test cars even encased in a barrier from the parking lot of Tesla.
Related: Tesla Will Fix Autopilot Camera Fogging & Freezing Soon, Here’s How
“The intent of the video was not to accurately portray what was available to customers in 2016. It was to portray what was possible to integrate into the system”, justifies the latter all the same. Neverthelessthis is not what Elon Musk implied during the broadcast. On Twitter, the boss of Tesla then claimed that the cars “Tesla drives itself (without any human intervention) on city streets and on the highway, then finds a parking space. »
Source : Reuters
