A new biography of Tesla CEO Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson exposes the turbulent development of Autopilot driving assistance technology, showing Musk's dogged pursuit of his vision clashing with engineers' safety concerns.
During test runs of Tesla cars using Autopilot in 2015, Musk had near-misses with danger. The biography describes a terrifying occurrence on Interstate 405 when Autopilot swerved dangerously near oncoming cars due to fading lane markings.
Elon Musk allegedly poured his rage on Tesla engineers after such occurrences, requesting that they "Do something to program this right," as quoted in the book, according to a 9Gag report.
Within Tesla's research team, there was a lot of disagreement over the use of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology, which uses lasers to scan the environment and is popular among manufacturers of autonomous vehicles because of its accuracy. Elon Musk, though, preferred optical sensors since people drive with their eyes. Cost factors also played a role in Musk's resolve since he thought forgoing LiDAR technology would result in lower production costs.
Engineers Tried Explaining to Elon Musk
However, the engineers at Tesla had other opinions. The new Elon Musk biography notes the difficulties in balancing the tech tycoon's ambition with technical viability. Tesla's senior vice president, Andrew Baglino "There was just such a gap between Elon's goal and the possible," said Baglino, as quoted in the report.
He noted that Elon Musk just was not aware of the difficulties and Tesla engineers made an effort to speak with Musk about the specifications for the sensors, stressing the importance of security.
"We're trying to have those conversations with Elon to establish what the sensors would need to do. And they were really difficult conversations because he kept coming back to the fact that people have just two eyes and they can drive the car," Baglino stated in the biography, as quoted by a Futurism report published by Yahoo! News.
However, Elon Musk persisted in his conviction that camera vision alone should be adequate, despite Tesla Engineers' best efforts.
Sam Teller, Musk's chief of staff, was able to allay the CEO's worries. Teller suggested repainting the curve's lane lines. However, this short tweak did not resolve Autopilot's issue on challenging roads.
The book also described Musk's efforts to encourage Tesla to record driver behavior using its built-in driver monitoring camera. This plan attempted to provide proof in support of Tesla's defense if autopilot-related incidents occurred.
Tesla Facing Autopilot Mishaps Lawsuits
These revelations occur at a time when Tesla is facing autopilot-related legal issues. According to Reuters, Tesla is facing several lawsuits in the US.
The first trial was scheduled to begin in the middle of September in a state court in California and concerns a civil complaint that claims Tesla's Autopilot technology was to blame for a terrifying occurrence. The Model 3 of Micah Lee reportedly went off a roadway east of Los Angeles at 65 mph, hitting a palm tree and igniting in seconds.
Micah Lee tragically lost his life in the 2019 collision, which was previously unknown, and two of his passengers, including an eight-year-old boy, received serious injuries. The passengers and Lee's estate claim in the complaint that Tesla knew about Autopilot and other safety system flaws when it sold the car.
The second trial is slated to take place in a Florida state court in the early months of October in a different legal dispute. A 2019 incident north of Miami had Stephen Banner's Model 3 driving beneath an 18-wheeler big-rig truck trailer that joined the road.
Banner tragically perished as a consequence of the collision, which took off Tesla's roof. In the complaint filed by Banner's husband, it is claimed that Autopilot did not use brakes or steering movements to avoid the crash.
In reaction to both accidents, Tesla has vehemently denied responsibility and blamed driver error for the occurrences.
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