A Tesla video was supposed to demonstrate the capabilities of the "autopilot" - now a senior engineer reveals that it was tricked.
Just a few years ago, the hype about Tesla was huge: the vehicles from Elon Musk (51) impressed many with their acceleration, their range – and the huge display in the middle of the dashboard.
One feature in particular aroused almost unlimited enthusiasm: the "autopilot".
It felt like Tesla was light years ahead of the competition with this system.
But gradually the dangers became apparent.
The system's capabilities are often overestimated by the owners - because it is at most a so-called Level 2 system that has to be constantly monitored by the driver.
Above all, it is the name that is misleading – Tesla is now threatened with legal trouble in the USA because of allegedly false promises.
It's just one of many problems the carmaker is currently struggling with.
Tesla "Autopilot": Lead engineer admits cheating with promotional video
The video is from 2016 (it can be found here) and is intended to show the capabilities of the "Autopilot" system.
At the beginning two sentences are displayed: "The person in the driver's seat is only there for legal reasons.
The driver doesn't do anything, the car drives itself.” Then the clip begins, in which a longer – supposedly autonomous – journey can be seen.
The Rolling Stones song "Paint it Black" is playing in the background.
At the end, the driver gets out and the car finds a parking space on its own and parks it.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter: "Tesla drives itself (without any human intervention) through city streets and freeways - and then finds a parking space." But obviously that wasn't quite the case.
Tesla drives itself (no human input at all) thru urban streets to highway to streets, then finds a parking spot https://t.co/V2T7KGMPBo
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 20, 2016
You can find even more exciting car topics in the free newsletter from our partner 24auto.de.
Tesla tricks with "Autopilot" advertising video: Employees had to intervene several times
As Ashok Elluswamy, head of software development for Tesla's Autopilot driver assistance system, testified before a California court, Tesla employees had to intervene several times when driving the Model X.
This is reported by the Reuters
news agency.
A test car even crashed into a fence when trying to demonstrate automatic parking.
When asked if the 2016 video showed the "Autopilot" system features available in production vehicles at the time, Elluswamy replied, "It doesn't."
Ten cars with internal combustion engines that we will miss
Ten cars with internal combustion engines that we will miss
The engineer's statement, which has now become known, dates back to July 2022 - and came about as part of a trial surrounding a fatal accident involving a former Apple engineer in 2018.
At the time, Walter Huang had an accident in his Tesla with the "autopilot" activated.
+
In a promotional video for the “Autopilot”, Tesla cheated, as a senior engineer testified in court.
(icon picture)
© ZUMA Press/Imago
Tesla's controversial "autopilot": system repeatedly shows major weaknesses
Tesla's "autopilot" still has major weaknesses, as German TV journalists recently showed with a Model Y.
A YouTuber demonstrated a while ago how quickly even the highest expansion stage “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) in the beta version reaches its limits.
Again and again there are cases in which it is disputed whether the "autopilot" was really to blame or whether the driver himself made a mistake - as was recently the case in a serial accident in a tunnel in San Francisco.
For a while, Tesla even relied solely on cameras for its “autopilot” technology – but the Texans now want to use radar sensors again.
Rubric list image: © ZUMA Press/Imago
