Delays on Tesla's Driverless Technologies Spark Controversy
In January, Tesla announced that all Model S and Model X vehicles would be sold with eight cameras, a radar system, 12 ultrasonic sensors and a high-power computer, allowing them to drive autonomously.
That same month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was asked on Twitter how long it would be before the Full Self Driving feature enabled by the myriad of sensors and cameras would be noticeably improved upon over its partially self-driving Enhanced Autopilot. Musk replied, “3 months maybe, 6 months definitely.” It’s now been nine months, and those owners who paid for the Full Self Driving feature are still very much driving themselves.
In April, a group of Model S and Model X owners filed a class action lawsuit against the automaker claiming its Enhanced Autopilot system was “essentially unusable and demonstrably dangerous.” Those owners also claim they were misled as Tesla promised over-the-air updates to Autopilot that would improve its capabilities. Updates came frequently in the beginning of the year, but it’s now been five months since there was an update to the system. Not only is Tesla’s Full Self Driving feature not yet active, its much less advanced Enhanced Autopilot doesn’t perform as well as the previous version of the system.
SEE ALSO: Tesla Autopilot is Far From Perfect: The Skinny with Craig Cole
Tesla’s split with Mobileye about a year ago is likely part of the reason for its self-driving woes. Mobileye was its partner on the original Autopilot system (the one the suit claims worked better than Enhanced Autopilot), but the two companies parted ways after Mobileye expressed “safety concerns regarding the use of Autopilot hands-free.” Mobileye felt Tesla was misleading customers as to Autopilot ‘s functionalities, which requires the driver keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times.
“Long term this is going to hurt the interests of the company and hurt the interests of an entire industry, if a company of our reputation will continue to be associated with this type of pushing the envelope in terms of safety,” Mobileye’s chairman, Amnon Shashua, said at the time.
[Source: The Detroit News]
Sam McEachern holds a diploma in journalism from St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario, and has been covering the automotive industry for over 5 years. He conducts reviews and writes AutoGuide's news content. He's a die-hard motorsports fan with a passion for performance cars of all sorts.
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If Tesla causes an accident/death due to it not being capable of doing what they claim, is just asking for a big lawsuit.
anything Tesla does these days sparks controversy, so what's new? each time they decide to do or not do something, it's a controversy. As far as self-driving cars go, I personally don't want them as I like to drive my own car. My dad on the other hand wants a self driving car as it would make long road trips less tiring...okay, I can see that as a benefit, but for everyday living, I'm not totally on board. First the "death" of the manual transmission and people learning how to actually drive a car and next, the "death" of actually driving the car period. Soon, driving will be reserved for the poor or rich eccentric types that take up odd hobbies.