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As Tesla Inc TSLA owners continued to wait for Elon Musk to come through on his “full self-driving” promise, new reports indicated fully autonomous capabilities might be further away than most thought, or at least than they were in 2016.
What To Know: According to a CNN report citing testimony from a senior Tesla engineer, a video Tesla used to promote its self-driving technology in 2016 was staged.
The video, which remained archived on Tesla’s website, made it look like the vehicle was capable of stopping at red lights and accelerating off the line on its own, but new testimony from Ashok Elluswamy, director of autopilot software at Tesla, showed the vehicle was not capable of such.
“The intent of the video was not to accurately portray what was available for customers in 2016. It was to portray what was possible to build into the system,” Elluswamy said, per Reuters.
Elluswamy’s testimony marked the first time a Tesla employee confirmed how the video was produced. The Tesla engineer noted Tesla used 3D mapping on a predetermined route to stage the video. Drivers reportedly had to take over control of the vehicle during the test runs. One even crashed into a fence in Tesla’s parking lot, Elluswamy said.
Related Link: Elon Musk Left Bewildered By Peculiar Davos 2023 Rule Of Not Allowing EVs To Drive Around VIPs: ‘Ironic Indeed’
At the beginning of the video, Tesla noted, “The person in the driver’s seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself.”
When the self-driving video was released in 2016, Musk took to Twitter to confirm that the vehicle was driving on its own.
“Tesla drives itself (no human input at all) thru urban streets to highway to streets, then finds a parking spot,” Musk said at the time, adding a link to the video.
A trial regarding old tweets from Musk kicked off on Tuesday. The trial is centered around a tweet from 2018 in which Musk claimed he had secured the necessary funding to take Tesla private.
See Also: Why Jim Cramer Says Tesla Stock Is A ‘Sleeping Giant’
TSLA Price Action: Tesla has a 52-week high of $384.29 and a 52-week low of $101.81.
Tesla shares closed Tuesday up 7.43% at $131.49.
Photo: Screenshot from 2016 video on Tesla’s site.
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Image and article originally from www.benzinga.com. Read the original article here.