A Tesla video has already been shown to demonstrate the company’s self-driving capabilities, according to claims from the company’s top engineers reported by Reuters.
The video was shared on a blog in 2016 Mail Titled “Complete Hardware for Self-Driving on All Teslas,” which is still available. About 4 minutes before the video starts playing, the screen flashes text that says “The person in the driver’s seat is only there for legal reasons. He’s not doing anything. The car is driving itself.”
The video then shows the Tesla pulling out of a driveway, stopping at intersections and red lights, navigating a highway, ferrying a person to an office complex, then paralleling itself, and tuning to the sound of the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black.” The driver’s hands hover just below the steering wheel for the duration of the video.
CEO Elon Musk promoted the demonstration on Twitter, writing, “Tesla drives itself (no human intervention whatsoever).”
But a senior engineer now says the footage was filmed, Reuters mentioned Tuesday.
The news service cited testimony from Ashok Eluswami, the company’s director of Autopilot software, taken as part of a lawsuit over the 2018 death of a driver in a Tesla.
“The intention of the video was not to accurately depict what was available to customers in 2016, but rather to depict what could be included in the system,” Elswami was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Al-Leswami said the car was traveling on a predetermined route in the video and that the drivers intervened to take control during the test run, Reuters reported. He also testified that during attempts to show the Model X could park itself without a driver, a test car crashed into a fence in a Tesla parking lot, Reuters reported.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “Until self-driving cars are validated and approved by regulators, drivers are responsible and must remain in control of their vehicle at all times,” the company warns on its website.
Lawsuits by families of accident victims
Elluswamy’s testimony was taken as part of a lawsuit in Death of Walter Huanga 38-year-old Apple engineer who died in 2018 after crashing his Tesla into the middle of a highway on Highway 101 in California. lawsuitfiled by Huang’s widow, claims Tesla promoted its self-driving systems as safer than they really were.
Mark Fung, the family’s attorney, charged in a statement: “Tesla is testing its Autopilot pilot software on live drivers.”
Huang believes his Model X “was safer than a human-run car because of its [Tesla’s] Claimed technical superiority in relation to the vehicle’s autopilot system. lawsuit States. According to the complaint, after Huang’s death, the automaker added safety features to its assistive driving system, including the ability to independently change lanes, shift from one highway to another, exit the highway, and use automatic emergency braking. The suit claims these features would have saved Huang’s life.
The lawsuit, brought by the Huang family, is scheduled to go to trial in March. The suit is one of several the company is facing from families of dead drivers. Since 2016, traffic safety regulators have investigated 35 accidents involving Teslas, in which 19 people were killed, according to the Associated Press. He presses.
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