Immediately after Tesla came out swinging against Mobileye, the Israel-based camera manufacturer released an official statement condemning what it called as the carmaker's incorrect allegations. The issue stemmed from an aspersion made by Amnon Shashua, Mobileye chairman, casting doubt on Tesla's Autopilot technology as a truly working driverless technology.
Tesla has responded through a spokesperson that Mobileye allegedly took a negative position toward Autopilot when it was known that Tesla would not renew its contract and would be developing its own camera technology instead. The pronouncement also cited an inability on the part of Mobileye to keep pace with the development of Tesla's products as a factor in that decision.
Mobileye's response strongly condemned Tesla's version of the issue. It has outlined a detailed chronology of events to support its position that it has been questioning Autopilot's capability as a hands-free driving technology. It cited a May 2015 correspondence, for instance, where the company supposedly stressed concerns about the hands-free feature because of the lack of proper and substantial technological restrictions.
Tesla supposedly activated the hands-free feature after reassuring Mobileye that it will still be hands-on. The company, however, does educate its consumers about the hands-free feature, which allows drivers to take their hands off the wheels for a short period of time while driving at highway speeds. When videos, for example, emerged showing drivers using the feature entirely, Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, publicly expressed his concern.
Mobileye statement also explained that it initiated the contract termination after its work on Tesla's EyeQ3 processor.
"Tesla's response to the May 7 crash, wherein the company shifted blame to the camera, and later corrected and shifted blame to the radar, indicated to Mobileye that Mobileye's relationship with Tesla could not continue," the statement said. "As for Tesla's claim that Mobileye was threatened by Tesla's internal computer vision efforts, the company has little knowledge of these efforts other than an awareness that Tesla had put together a small team."
Mobileye said that after its official statement, it will no longer comment on the issue, indicating that the word war is fuelling spurious claims in the media. It noted that it contributes to the growing mistrust on vehicle automation and endangers the viability of technologies in the industry, particularly those that can save lives.
Tesla, for its part, is in the process of upgrading the Autopilot software, shifting reliance from the camera to its radar systems in order to better evaluate environmental inputs and road conditions. One should note that the carmaker does not use the LiDar laser sensor system installed by Google and other companies in their own self-driving vehicles.
