htmlOn the morning of May 8, according to reports, Tesla's Autopilot software chief told the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) that the company's CEO Elon Musk has been exaggerating his Advanced driver assistance system capability. The news comes from a memo published by legal transparency group PlainSite, which obtained the documents from a public records request.
Musk has been criticized for a long time, and there is a discrepancy between what he claims is Autopilot's capabilities and the software's true capabilities. Not long ago, a Tesla (672.37, 8.83, 1.33%) car crashed in Texas , resulting in the death of the occupants in the car. After the accident, Tesla faced increased scrutiny.
On March 9, the California DMV held a conference call with Tesla representatives, and the memo of the meeting showed: "The tweets issued by Musk do not match the engineering reality. Tesla is currently in the L2 level of autonomous driving." The so-called The L2 level refers to the semi-autonomous driving system that requires manual monitoring and intervention.
On an earnings call in January, Musk told investors that he was "very confident that fully automated driving can be done this year and that it will surpass human drivers in reliability."
Last October, Tesla rolled out a beta version of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software to some owners through its Early Access Program. The update enables drivers to use Autopilot's partially automated driver assistance system on city streets and local roads. Tesla uses the Early Access Program as a testbed, designed to let car owners help find bugs in the software.Tesla told the DMV that as of March 9, a total of 824 vehicles had participated in the program, including 753 employees and 71 non-employees, the memo shows.
Musk has said the company will be "very cautious" when it comes to handling software updates. When using the software, drivers are expected to still have their hands on the steering wheel and be ready to take over control of the vehicle at all times. But Musk has made bold predictions about when Tesla will be able to achieve full self-driving, and his claims appear to contradict what the company's engineers have told regulators.
A Tesla representative told the DMV that the company likely won't be able to achieve Level 5 autonomous driving, which means the vehicle will not need a human driver in all conditions, in 2021. The company said it could not say with certainty whether it would reach the L5 level by the end of the year.
This is not the first time that Tesla's private communications with the DMV have contradicted Musk's claims. In March of this year, PlainSite announced that in December last year, Tesla Deputy General Counsel Eric Williams and Miguel Acosta, Director of the Autonomous Vehicles Division of the California Department of Motor Vehicles ) communication. Williams (25.3, 0.33, 1.32%) states: "Neither Autopilot nor FSD is an autonomous driving system, and there is currently no system that allows our vehicles to drive autonomously." In other words , Tesla's beta FSD just has a name reminiscent of Autopilot.
Both Tesla and Musk have long been criticized for exaggerating the company's Autopilot system, which simply keeps Tesla cars centered in their lanes while driving and responds to vehicles ahead. Adjust the speed.Autopilot and FSD mislead car owners into thinking their cars can actually drive themselves.
There have been multiple fatal crashes involving Autopilot Tesla vehicles before. The most recent incident occurred in Spring, Texas, where two men died after driving their Tesla into a tree. Local law enforcement said there was no one in the driver's seat at the time of the crash, leading to speculation the two men abused Autopilot. Later, Tesla claimed that Autopilot was not enabled at the time of the accident and that someone may have been in the driver's seat at the time.
Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the crash, along with dozens of other incidents involving Tesla Autopilot. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment, likely because the company has disbanded its press office and typically no longer responds to requests from the media.
Source: Sina Finance
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