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Enlarge / Walter Huang’s Mannequin X in a tow yard days after his deadly crash.
Tesla’s extensively seen 2016 Autopilot demonstration video exhibiting the system stopping for purple lights and shifting off once more when the sunshine modified to inexperienced was faked, in response to the director of Autopilot software program, Ashok Elluswamy. Elluswamy made the assertion underneath oath throughout a deposition for a lawsuit introduced towards Tesla following the deadly crash of Apple engineer Walter Huang in 2018.
The video, posted in October 2016 and nonetheless obtainable on Tesla’s web site, begins with the caption: “The individual within the driver’s seat is just there for authorized causes. He isn’t doing something. The automobile is driving itself.” We then see a Tesla Mannequin X go away a storage, and a driver enters the automobile as The Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black” begins to play.
The closely edited video then exhibits the Mannequin X driving round, stopping for highway junctions and purple lights. All of the whereas, the human within the driver’s seat has his arms close to however not on the steering wheel. Upon reaching a Tesla facility, the human leaves the Mannequin X, which fits off to park itself, avoiding operating over a pedestrian within the course of.
On the time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk publicized the video through his Twitter account, telling the world that “Tesla drives itself (no human enter in any respect) through city streets to freeway to streets, then finds a parking spot.” Musk went on so as to add that “8 cameras, 12 ultrasonars and radar all flush mounted and physique shade. Magnificence stays.”
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Since then, Tesla has eliminated each radar and ultrasonic sensors from its automobiles, presumably to scale back the price of supplies to the automaker. The lack of forward-looking radar sensors and a lot of complaints about phantom braking have led the Nationwide Freeway Transportation Security Administration to open an investigation, considered one of a number of open NHTSA investigations into Tesla’s varied driver assists and their propensity to crash into issues.
However the Mannequin X within the video was preprogrammed to drive from Menlo Park to Palo Alto, in response to Elluswamy, who was a senior software program engineer in 2019 earlier than being promoted to go all Autopilot software program improvement in 2019.
“The intent of the video was to not precisely painting what was obtainable for purchasers in 2016. It was to painting what was potential to construct into the system,” Elluswamy mentioned in his testimony, in response to Reuters. 3D maps have been used to pre-program the route, together with the place to cease, and in the course of the self-parking demo a Tesla crashed right into a fence, Elluswamy mentioned.
The deadly crash occurred on Freeway 101 in Mountain View, California, in March 2016 when Huang’s Mannequin X, working underneath Autopilot, swerved right into a freeway crash attenuator at greater than 70 mph. Tesla blamed Huang for the crash, claiming he was not paying consideration. However in response to the Nationwide Transportation Security Board, Huang had repeatedly complained to family and friends about his automobile’s propensity to swerve at that exact crash barrier up to now. The Nationwide Transportation Security Board had harsh phrases for Tesla, CalTrans, and the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration, all of which shared blame for the dying, it mentioned in 2020.
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