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The testimony may be used in a lawsuit against Tesla.
In 2016, Tesla posted a video promoting the “fully self-driving” capabilities of its vehicles. But in recent testimony, Tesla’s director of Autopilot software claims that this promotional video was staged. Tesla simply pre-programmed a route for the car, and humans stepped in whenever the going got tough.
As reported by ReutersThis testimony was made by Ashok Elluswamy during a July deposition for a lawsuit against Tesla. The claim stems from a car accident 2018—A Model X crashed into a traffic barrier while the autopilot was engaged, killing the driver.
We are not legal experts and do not know how this testimony will be used in court. That said, the fact that Tesla faked this self-driving video from 2016 is alarming. Tesla misled the general public by advertising an autopilot feature that did not exist. The reality of this promotional video was kept secret for half a decade and we hope it has not influenced public policy or regulation of autonomous vehicles.
According to Ashok Elluswamy’s testimony, Tesla vehicles were not allowed to stop at red lights when this video was created. But he also states that “this video was not intended to accurately represent what was available to customers in 2016.” This is true, and Tesla’s website explicitly states that “Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous.”
But the Tesla company did not treat this video as a proof of concept. In fact, Elon Musk shared the video on Twitter as proof that “Tesla drives itself.” He even said that the Tesla automatically recognized and avoided a disabled parking space. (Elon has a long history of exaggerating the capabilities of Full Self-Driving. He claimed that it would operate “at a level of safety well above that of an average driver” because of the end of 2021for example.)
In response to the 2018 accident, Tesla published a blog post stating that the driver “had received several visual and one audible practical warnings earlier on the road and the driver’s hands were not detected on the wheel for six seconds before the collision. The automaker also claimed that “Tesla Autopilot doesn’t prevent all accidents,” though it discouraged lawmakers from cracking down on self-driving systems, as Autopilot “unequivocally makes the world safer for car occupants.” vehicle”.
Source: Reuters
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