Inside Tesla’s Autopilot vision
More than two dozen current and former Tesla engineers have questioned whether the electric car company will be able to produce cars that can safely drive themselves,
The Times’s Cade Metz and Neal Boudette report. Many of the engineers said that Elon Musk, Tesla’s C.E.O., pushed the Autopilot driver-assistance system in directions other automakers were unwilling to take, and misled buyers about the technology’s abilities.
Tesla’s Autopilot system relies solely on cameras. Other companies working on autonomous vehicles have decided that cameras alone, an approach embraced by Musk, are not reliable enough. Some experts say that they believe Tesla’s camera-only system will eventually work but that other sensors could be needed in the interim.
Consider a 2016 promotional video. As it was rolling out an updated version of its Autopilot, Tesla
posted a video to its website that showed one of its vehicles driving itself at top speeds, making sharp turns and merging into traffic. But Tesla employees who worked on the video said the company used technology not available in Tesla’s vehicles at the time. Also, during filming the car hit a roadside barrier and had to be repaired, they said.