Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On January 18, the testimony of a senior engineer of Tesla showed that the demonstration video of the company's much-hyped driver assistance system Autopilot in 2016 was actually a forgery.

In this video, a Tesla Model X, driving through cities, suburbs and highways, stops automatically at a red light and accelerates at a green light. The ad is still displayed on Tesla's website with the slogan: "people in the driver's seat have to sit there only for legal reasons." he doesn't have to do anything. The car can drive itself. "

▲ Tesla 2016 Autopilot demonstration video (source: NetEase Science and Technology report) Tesla CEO Elon Musk (Elon Musk) used the video as evidence that the company relies on many built-in sensors and driver-assisted driving software to help vehicles achieve self-driving.

However, Ashok Eleswamy (Ashok Elluswamy), director of Tesla's driving assistance software Autopilot, said in the newly revealed testimony that the Model X in the video did not use Tesla's technology for self-driving test, but used 3D maps to navigate the scheduled route. In other words, Tesla Autopilot does not have the ability to plan its route dynamically, so the company's engineers are required to map out its route in advance for shooting promotional videos.

Elleswamy's testimony was used as evidence of a lawsuit against Tesla after a fatal car accident involving a former Apple engineer Walter Huang in 2018. The testimony, which has not been publicly reported before, is the first time Tesla employees have confirmed and detailed the production process of the video.

In his testimony, Eleswamy said that at Musk's request, Tesla's Autopilot team recorded "the capabilities of the system and demonstrated it." In order to make this video, Tesla used a 3D map on the scheduled route. In addition, human drivers also intervened during the demonstration. While trying to show that the Model X can park automatically without a driver, a test car crashed into a fence in Tesla's parking lot.

Eleswamy explained: "the purpose of this video is not to accurately describe the features that consumers can use in 2016, but to describe what may be built into the system."

When Tesla posted the video, Musk wrote on Twitter: "Tesla's vehicles can drive themselves on city streets and highways without the intervention of human drivers, and then automatically find parking spaces."

The New York Times quoted anonymous sources as saying in 2021 that engineer Tesla made a 2016 demo video to promote Autopilot, but did not disclose that the route had been drawn in advance or that the test vehicle had crashed. Asked if the 2016 video showed the performance of the Autopilot available on mass-produced cars at the time, Elleswamy also said no.

Andrew McDeWitt (Andrew McDevitt), a lawyer representing Walter Huang's wife, questioned Elleswamy's testimony in July, saying that "the video without any disclaimer or explanation is clearly misleading".

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded in 2020 that Walter Huang's fatal car accident may have been caused by a combination of distraction and limitations of Autopilot functions. The agency said Tesla's "ineffective monitoring of the driver's attention" led to the accident.

Eleswamy says drivers can "fool the surveillance system" into believing that their attention is on the steering wheel. But he says he doesn't think Autopilot has a safety problem if the driver really stays focused.

Mr. Elleswamy, Mr. Musk and Tesla didn't respond to requests for comment. However, the company has warned drivers that when using Autopilot, they must put their hands on the steering wheel and maintain control of the vehicle. On the company's website, Tesla stressed that the company's technology is designed to help vehicles automatically steer, brake, accelerate and change lanes, but it "does not enable vehicles to drive on their own."

The disclosure of the testimony comes as Tesla is facing a number of lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny over false propaganda involved in his driver assistance system. It is reported that after a number of crashes involving Autopilot, the US Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation into Tesla's claim that his vehicle could drive on its own in 2021.

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