Jan 17 (Reuters) – A 2016 video that Tesla (TSLA.O) used to advertise its self-driving expertise was staged to indicate capabilities like stopping at a purple mild and accelerating at a inexperienced mild that the system didn’t have, based on testimony by a senior engineer.
The video, which remains archived on Tesla’s website, was launched in October 2016 and promoted on Twitter by Chief Executive Elon Musk as proof that “Tesla drives itself.”
But the Model X was not driving itself with expertise Tesla had deployed, Ashok Elluswamy, director of Autopilot software program at Tesla, stated within the transcript of a July deposition taken as proof in a lawsuit towards Tesla for a 2018 deadly crash involving a former Apple (AAPL.O) engineer.
The beforehand unreported testimony by Elluswamy represents the primary time a Tesla worker has confirmed and detailed how the video was produced.
The video carries a tagline saying: “The person in the driver’s seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself.”
Elluswamy stated Tesla’s Autopilot staff got down to engineer and file a “demonstration of the system’s capabilities” on the request of Musk.
Elluswamy, Musk and Tesla didn’t reply to a request for remark. However, the corporate has warned drivers that they need to preserve their arms on the wheel and preserve management of their autos whereas utilizing Autopilot.
The Tesla expertise is designed to help with steering, braking, velocity and lane adjustments however its options “do not make the vehicle autonomous,” the corporate says on its web site.
To create the video, the Tesla used 3D mapping on a predetermined route from a home in Menlo Park, California, to Tesla’s then-headquarters in Palo Alto, he stated.
Drivers intervened to take management in check runs, he stated. When attempting to indicate the Model X might park itself with no driver, a check automobile crashed right into a fence in Tesla’s parking zone, he stated.
“The intent of the video was not to accurately portray what was available for customers in 2016. It was to portray what was possible to build into the system,” Elluswamy stated, based on a transcript of his testimony seen by Reuters.
When Tesla launched the video, Musk tweeted, “Tesla drives itself (no human input at all) thru urban streets to highway to streets, then finds a parking spot.”
Tesla faces lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny over its driver help methods.
The U.S. Department of Justice started a felony investigation into Tesla’s claims that its electrical autos can drive themselves in 2021, after plenty of crashes, a few of them deadly, involving Autopilot, Reuters has reported.
The New York Times reported in 2021 that Tesla engineers had created the 2016 video to advertise Autopilot with out disclosing that the route had been mapped prematurely or {that a} automobile had crashed in attempting to finish the shoot, citing nameless sources.
When requested if the 2016 video confirmed the efficiency of the Tesla Autopilot system accessible in a manufacturing automobile on the time, Elluswamy stated, “It does not.”
Elluswamy was deposed in a lawsuit towards Tesla over a 2018 crash in Mountain View, California, that killed Apple engineer Walter Huang.
Andrew McDevitt, the lawyer who represents Huang’s spouse and who questioned Elluswamy’s in July, informed Reuters it was “obviously misleading to feature that video without any disclaimer or asterisk.”
The National Transportation Safety Board concluded in 2020 that Huang’s deadly crash was possible brought on by his distraction and the restrictions of Autopilot. It stated Tesla’s “ineffective monitoring of driver engagement” had contributed to the crash.
Elluswamy stated drivers might “fool the system,” making a Tesla system imagine that they had been paying consideration based mostly on suggestions from the steering wheel after they weren’t. But he stated he noticed no security concern with Autopilot if drivers had been paying consideration.
Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Kevin Krolicki and Lisa Shumaker
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
