Allegations that Tesla staged a 2016 video demonstrating full self driving have resurfaced, and this time it is not an nameless supply making the claims – it is testimony from Tesla’s personal director of Autopilot software program, Ashok Elluswamy.
In a partly redacted deposition [PDF] from a 2019 civil case, given in June final yr and beforehand unreported, Elluswamy testifies that the security and capabilities of Autopilot as demonstrated within the four-minute clip weren’t constant, on the time, with what was offered to the viewer.
On the time the video was recorded in 2016, Elluswamy was a software program engineer on the Autopilot workforce and informed attorneys he was straight concerned with the making of the video, even sitting within the again seat of the car throughout tapings.
“The intent of the video was to not precisely painting what was accessible for purchasers in 2016. It was to painting what was doable to construct the system,” Elluswamy stated in his testimony, “so in that sense … it was not making an attempt to painting what was the then state of Autopilot,” he added.
Below questioning, Elluswamy informed the court docket the route was deliberate and 3D mapped upfront, it took a number of takes to get a run with out the necessity for human intervention, and – in response to the engineer – the automotive even hit a fence when making an attempt to display automated parking.
Of the video, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on the time: “Tesla drives itself (no human enter in any respect) via city streets to freeway to streets, then finds a parking spot.” Tesla’s web page for the video describes it for instance of the total self-driving {hardware} that comes commonplace in all Tesla’s.
Elluswamy was being deposed in a 2019 case – Sz Hua Huang et al v. Tesla Inc – to do with a deadly 2018 Tesla accident involving Autopilot. In that crash, an Apple engineer died. Tesla said the accident was at the least partially the motive force’s fault as a result of the engineer, Walter Huang, allegedly didn’t have his palms on the wheel whereas Autopilot was engaged.
The engineer’s household has sued Tesla, alleging that Autopilot was defectively designed, misrepresented and falsely marketed. In December, Tesla requested the Superior Courtroom of California in Santa Clara County for an order prohibiting further depositions from its workers within the case, however was denied.
That 2016 video is not a brand new controversy for Tesla, both. In a 2021 New York Instances story about Tesla’s quest for self driving, the newspaper stated a number of Tesla workers who labored on the video had come ahead to say it was falsely representing Autopilot’s capabilities.
In accordance with the NYT, “The route taken by the automotive had been charted forward of time by software program that created a three-dimensional digital map … At one level through the filming of the video, the automotive hit a roadside barrier on Tesla property whereas utilizing Autopilot and needed to be repaired.”
If that sounds acquainted, it is roughly what Elluswamy stated.
Extra fodder for the attorneys
Tesla is at present coping with quite a few Autopilot-related lawsuits and authorities investigations.
Amongst different battles, Tesla is being sued by police in Texas who allege defects in Tesla’s security options, which they declare have been neglected to “pump Tesla’s share worth and promote extra vehicles” that led to a Mannequin X smashing into two parked police cruisers at 70mph (112kph) throughout a visitors cease.
In the meantime, the Nationwide Freeway Transportation Security Administration opened a formal engineering analysis to take a look at Autopilot questions of safety in June of final yr.
California’s Division of Motor Autos filed a pair of complaints towards Tesla in August alleging the corporate misrepresented its autonomous driving capabilities. That very same month, a number of California Tesla house owners filed a class-action lawsuit alleging the Musk-owned automaker hid Autopilot malfunctions from drivers which have induced Teslas to abruptly brake in visitors.
In October, the US Division of Justice introduced a criminal investigation into Tesla’s self-driving claims.
We have requested Elluswamy and Tesla for remark however have not heard again. ®
