Footage, data from deadly Tesla crashes casts doubts on Autopilot
A major Wall Street Journal investigation has gathered data and chilling videos from over 200 Tesla Autopilot crashes.
The investigation found evidence that Tesla’s move away from lidar (a highly accurate technology similar to radar that uses lasers instead of electromagnetic waves) to gauge distance in favor of a cheaper AI and camera based system, has led to deadly accidents where road obstacles were not identified in time to safely stop the vehicle.
The family of a Tesla driver that was killed while using Autopilot has been trying to get access to the footage from Tesla for over a year.
On Tesla’s Q2 earnings call last week, Musk boasted about the quality of the Autopilot feature. “People actually don't know how good the system is, and I would encourage anyone to understand the system better to simply try it out and let the car drive you around,” said Musk.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been leaning into Tesla’s Autopilot, putting the technology at the center of the car maker’s plans to roll out autonomous “robotaxis.”
A persistent obsession of Musk’s, the robotaxi would depend upon Tesla’s Autopilot technology, as in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk, the CEO said:
“No mirrors, no pedals, no steering wheel. This is me taking responsibility for this decision. Let me be clear, this vehicle must be designed as a clean robotaxi. We're going to take that risk. It's my fault if it fucks up. But we are not going to design some sort of amphibian frog that's a halfway car. We are all in on autonomy.”
Asked on the earnings call when investors should expect the first robotaxi, Musk said it depends on the company perfecting unsupervised full self driving. “It's difficult. Obviously my predictions on this have been overly optimistic in the past.”
The family of a Tesla driver that was killed while using Autopilot has been trying to get access to the footage from Tesla for over a year.
On Tesla’s Q2 earnings call last week, Musk boasted about the quality of the Autopilot feature. “People actually don't know how good the system is, and I would encourage anyone to understand the system better to simply try it out and let the car drive you around,” said Musk.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been leaning into Tesla’s Autopilot, putting the technology at the center of the car maker’s plans to roll out autonomous “robotaxis.”
A persistent obsession of Musk’s, the robotaxi would depend upon Tesla’s Autopilot technology, as in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk, the CEO said:
“No mirrors, no pedals, no steering wheel. This is me taking responsibility for this decision. Let me be clear, this vehicle must be designed as a clean robotaxi. We're going to take that risk. It's my fault if it fucks up. But we are not going to design some sort of amphibian frog that's a halfway car. We are all in on autonomy.”
Asked on the earnings call when investors should expect the first robotaxi, Musk said it depends on the company perfecting unsupervised full self driving. “It's difficult. Obviously my predictions on this have been overly optimistic in the past.”
