Tesla has been facing criticism over its Autopilot driver-assist system after Ashok Elluswamy, the company’s director of Autopilot software, admitted in a recent deposition that the 2016 video of a Tesla driving “by itself” was not actually driving itself. The video in question was twitted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, claiming that the Tesla was in fact driving itself.
However, Elluswamy stated that the demo was “specific to some predetermined route,” and that the production version of the technology relied only on input from cameras and sensors. He also said that the version of Autopilot that was available at the time the video was produced had “no traffic-light-handling capability.”
The deposition was taken as part of a lawsuit filed by the family of Wei “Walter” Huang, who died in 2018 when his Model X with Autopilot engaged crashed into a highway barrier. Elluswamy’s deposition also raised concerns about his knowledge of safety considerations, such as Operational Design Domain (ODD). ODD refers to situations, such as geography or weather, in which an autonomous vehicle is allowed to operate. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the organization behind the levels of autonomy that Tesla itself has referenced, calls ODD “the key to autonomous vehicle safety.”
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology, which is currently still in beta, has come under scrutiny in recent months as the company’s claims about the capabilities of the system have been called into question. Some experts have argued that the system is not yet ready for widespread use, and that Tesla’s marketing of the technology as “fully self-driving” is misleading. Additionally, there have been a number of reports of accidents involving Tesla vehicles using the FSD system, which has further raised concerns about the safety of the technology. While Tesla continues to develop and refine its FSD technology, it is important for the company to be transparent about the capabilities and limitations of the system to ensure the safety of its customers and other drivers on the road.
