Tesla’s revolutionary Autopilot driver assistance feature has been in the news extensively over the last few months, though not for positive reasons.
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DETROIT (AP) The company that made the camera and computer system for Tesla Motors’ semi-autonomous Autopilot says the electric vehicle maker ignored its warnings of safety problems.
Autopilot’s capabilities and Tesla’s marketing of the system, came under fire after a fatal crash involving a Tesla Model S driver using the new technology in May.
Tesla has “pushed the envelope” on safety, former business partner Mobileye has said. From Tesla’s perspective, Mobileye is acting like a scorned ex-lover and ticked at the automaker’s decision to use its own vision system in future versions of Autopilot, a self-driving vehicle technology that’s meant to assist (not replace) the human driver.
The company’s Autopilot technology has become the cynosure of media attention after the Florida accident.
Tesla and Mobileye stopped working together in July this year following the fatal crash.
Mobileye said Tesla was pushing the envelope on safety, according to a Reuters report on September 14, citing Chairman Amnon Shashua in an interview.
Mr Musk said that as drivers became familiar with the system, they tended to ignore audible warnings to retake the wheel.
“No matter how you spin it, [Autopilot] is not designed for that”, Shashua told Reuters. Those messages ranged from boasting about Autopilot’s capacities to cautioning drivers to keep their hands on the wheel, he said. The driver was killed in the accident, and the impact destroyed the vehicle’s logs, which are needed to determine if Autopilot was being used at the time of the crash. Part of the confusion seemed to come from how Tesla was marketing its autopilot feature in China, promoting it as zidong jiashi (自动驾驶), which directly translates to meaning that the auto can drive itself.
In fact, Tesla says the claims are sour grapes, saying that it was developing its own tech to replace Mobileye’s systems. While talking up the capabilities of the vehicle, Tesla simultaneously cautions drivers to remain in control and keep their hands on the wheel at all times.
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Consumer Reports, a product-testing and rating nonprofit, called on Tesla at the time to disable hands-free operation in its cars until the technology can be made safer. Later, in a face-to-face meeting, Musk said Autopilot would be “hands-on”, Mobileye said.
