Tesla engineer admits cheating with Autopilot video

In October 2016, Tesla promoted its Autopilot feature with a sensational video showing a Tesla Model X navigating the streets of California seemingly autonomously. The Tesla automatically stops at a traffic light, stops for pedestrians and parks. The video begins with the message, “The person sitting in the driver’s seat is only there for legal reasons. He’s not doing anything. The car drives itself.”

But what Tesla touted as a breakthrough in autonomous driving seven years ago did not match reality at the time. The supposedly independent journey was partly staged for the video. The responsible development chief Ashok Elluswamy admitted this during a court hearing in June 2022. The transcript of his testimony (PDF) was made public by Reuters news agency on Wednesday.

Therefore, the Telsa engineers did not rely on the data recorded by cameras and sensors while driving. Instead, the system used pre-recorded 3D information about the route. In other words, the video wouldn’t have been possible with the autopilot software of the time.

Tesla boss Elon Musk shared the video on Twitter on October 20, 2016 and wrote, “The Tesla drives on its own (without any human intervention) through city streets and highways and then finds a parking spot.”

The scam came to light when Tesla engineer Elluswamy, who was involved in the video, had to testify against Tesla in a lawsuit. The Model X in the video therefore did not drive with the autopilot technology used by Tesla at the time.

Musk wanted demo video

In his statement, the Tesla engineer describes in detail how the video came about. For example, he testified that the Autopilot team developed and recorded a “demonstration of the system’s capabilities” at Musk’s request. The Tesla in the video was driving on a predetermined route and would not have been able to drive any other route autonomously. The test drivers would then have to intervene several times. In an attempt to demonstrate that the Model X could park itself without a driver, a test car slammed into a fence in Tesla’s parking lot. Contrary to what is shown in the video, the autopilot was unable to stop at traffic lights at the time.

“The intent of the video was not to accurately represent what was available to customers in 2016. It was meant to show what was possible to build into the system,” Elluswamy testified. At Tesla, this sounded completely different in 2016.

The “New York Times” reported in 2021, based on anonymous sources, that Tesla staged the video without revealing how it came about. Now these allegations have been officially confirmed for the first time by a Tesla employee. When asked if the 2016 video showed the performance of the Tesla Autopilot system, which was available in a production vehicle at the time, Elluswamy said, “No, it doesn’t.”

His testimony serves as evidence in a lawsuit against Tesla investigating the fatal accident of Apple engineer Walter Huang in 2018. Huang had an autopilot accident in his Tesla at the time.

Elluswamy, Musk and Tesla did not respond to a request for comment, according to Reuters.

In late 2021, the New York Times reported that Musk had repeatedly ignored internal warnings from his engineers and brushed aside concerns in the pursuit of fully autonomous cars.

Tesla faces lawsuits and regulatory investigations in several countries over its driver assistance systems.

In California, Tesla has been banned from advertising its cars as “fully autonomous” since 2022. In Germany, a lawsuit that wanted to ban Tesla from advertising with the terms “autopilot” and “full potential for autonomous driving” failed in 2022.

Tesla advises customers to keep their hands on the wheel and maintain control of their vehicle while using Autopilot.

(oli)