[RahulNagaraj]

CJ Moore - Tesla's Autopilot Software Head, is reported to have admitted to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, that Elon Musk, the company's CEO has been overstating the capabilities of the advanced driver-assist system.



According to a media report, Moore has stated that there is a wide gap between what Elon Musk says publicly about the autopilot technology, and what it is actually capable of doing. Moore also stated that Tesla's autopilot tech is currently at Level 2, referring to a semi-automated driving system, which requires constant supervision from human drivers.



Earlier this year, Elon Musk had reportedly told investors that he was confident that Tesla cars will be able to drive themselves with reliability, by the end of 2021. However, Tesla representatives have informed the DMV that the cars are highly unlikely to achieve Level 5 autonomy by the end of the year.



In October 2020, Tesla introduced a new product called the 'full self-driving' (FSD) beta to its vehicle owners in an early access program. The product allows Tesla owners to access autopilot's partially automated driver assist systems on city streets.

As of March 9, 2021, Tesla is reported to have rolled out the new product on 824 vehicles. This includes vehicles of 753 employees and 71 non-employees. The early access program is used only as a testing platform to iron out any bugs in the software.

However, the software has to be handled very cautiously with drivers still expected to keep their hands on the steering wheel and take control at any time.



Tesla and Elon Musk, have been criticized on multiple occasions for overstating the capabilities of the driver-assist system. The reports also stated that the broad use of autopilot and FSD has misled Tesla customers into thinking that their cars can drive automatically.

Source: TheVerge

Link to Team-BHP news

[AZT]

The general theme for Tesla is create hype and overstate everything, this was also true for the whole India entry brouhaha. Below snippet sums their last quarter earnings perfectly.

But… all that glitters is not revenue from car sales… Let’s see… what did the results really tell us? That profit was based on $518 mm of regulatory credit sales and a $101 positive gain from its Bitcoin position and sales. Strip these out and… and Telsa lost $181mm selling cars.

To this day I don’t believe Tesla has made a single brass cent selling cars, yet the purveyor of fine regulatory credits and dabbler in cryptocurrencies has made its owner the second richest man on the planet. (And yes.. I still hold a small position in the stock.)

...

Ok – calling Tesla a pyramid scheme is harsh, but Musk knows he needs to keep up the positive news flow; continually demonstrating Telsa’s lead in EV, increasing his production numbers, upping the profits and feeding a never-ending stream of positive spin (like autonomous driving tomorrow – always tomorrow). Without the positive spin driving Tesla marketing and keeping up the stock-price, how will he continue to attract new buyers while persuading current investors to HODL! (Crypto-verse speak for “hold on for dear life”).

https://morningporridge.com/blog/bla...porridge/8541/

[SKC-auto]

Originally Posted by AZT

The general theme for Tesla is create hype and overstate everything, this was also true for the whole India entry brouhaha. Below snippet sums their last quarter earnings perfectly.
...
https://morningporridge.com/blog/bla...porridge/8541/

Hype or not, The problem with these articles is they do not tell the full story, Tesla is building 3 massive factories (Austin, Berlin & Shanghai extension) at the same time, I guess no car company ever did such a feat in history. They will not be profitable for another few years atleast. It's similar to somebody taking loans and buying plots, his savings in cash are zero, it does not mean his net worth is zero.

[AZT]

Originally Posted by SKC-auto

Hype or not, Tesla is building 3 massive factories (Austin, Berlin & Shanghai extension) at the same time,

I actually follow Tesla quite closely, just to add to this - Tesla Shanghai extension has been canceled.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aut...es-2021-05-11/

[gopi_rm]

This is not a surprise. Here is what I read few days back in a reliable autonews publication. Link

Waymo ranked top in latest Guidehouse leaderboard on automated driving systems

Tesla ranks last; 'Until Tesla is more honest, it is unlikely to improve,' the report said.

Self-driving technology company Waymo is the leader out of 15 companies developing automated driving systems, while Tesla comes in last, according to the latest leaderboard report from Guidehouse Insights. The report, released Monday, evaluated the companies and categorized them into leaders, contenders, challengers and followers.

Extract from the Guidehouse' report:

Top 10 Vendors

• Waymo
• Nvidia
• Argo AI
• Baidu
• Contenders
• Cruise
• Motional
• Mobileye
• Aurora
• Zoox

[SKC-auto]

Originally Posted by AZT

I actually follow Tesla quite closely, just to add to this - Tesla Shanghai extension has been canceled.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aut...es-2021-05-11/

Currently there is an expansion happening at Shanghai which is thought to be for the $25000 chinese designed Model 2. The Reuters article is about future expansion in the empty plot next to the factory.

https://youtu.be/nBAvbIFc7mI

[ads11]

The thing is that Elon, love him or hate it, admittedly wings it a lot when it comes to speaking about his companies. And being the incredibly influential person he is, what he says has an immediate and visceral impact. I feel for his engineers truly. Must be hard suddenly being held to task by investors and critics and everyone under the sun for near arbitrary deadlines and timelines that all come about from off the cuff comments from Elon. And I'm sure one can say that the above is simply the objective reading of the entire issue, however it's difficult for anyone to discuss Tesla without immediately being branded as a partisan one way or the other.

As an observer though, I wish some regulatory body cleared up the semantics of the various levels of autonomous driving or driving aids because really it's a wild west right now and the person with the loudest microphone or biggest pulpit (Elon) is driving the prevailing perception (that perception being a bit nebulous to be honest). I'm by no means a casual auto observer and even I find it a bit hard to make sense of all the ever changing jargon and goalposts in the self driving space (heck, I've used at least 3 different broad terms to describe it all in the space of 1 paragraph. Should say everything).

As with most developing fields, especially rapidly evolving ones, hopefully some semblance of order will naturally come about but I guess when safety is involved, it might be something whereby regulators should probably step in to narrow down the limits somewhat or create a framework.

[GTO]

Well, he does exaggerate and make loud (sometimes impossible) claims from time to time. But the fact is, Elon Musk is a master-marketeer and one who's image is closely associated with his company's (like Mallya & Kingfisher at one time). Many of his claims are far-fetched, but then, he is a dreamer.

Despite the exaggerations, I think Tesla's self-driving capability is the best in the auto industry. Surprised there aren't more lawsuits in sue-happy USA though. Tesla owners haven't got exactly what he claimed they would.

[Hayek]

Elon Musk is a classic example of how even in the US, the law is not the same for everybody. Any ordinary CEO who made such blatantly false statements about the performance of his company would likely end up with massive SEC fines or in jail. And his behaviour with respect to Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Shitcoin and other such Ponzi schemes is what would be called a Pump and Dump fraud if done by anyone else. The day the current stock market bubble bursts (and I have seen plenty of bubbles in my time - they all burst, but you never can know when), the Tesla stock and all these other rubbish “assets” will collapse and I will not be surprised if Musk ends up like Jeffrey Schilling or Bernie Madoff. But as long as everyone is making money, no one has the incentive to rock the boat despite the most egregious conduct I have ever seen from a Public Company CEO.

[avira_tk]

I like the fact that Musk shafted those parasitic hedge funds that tried to profit on his company going bust. He beat them when he delivered, the SEC is an attack dog for the elite. Musk isn't bothered because he's backed by big money that is desperate for returns and he's on his way to disrupt the car industry in a big way. This isn't for the masses of the world, but reasonably well off people in rich countries first.

Musk is the guy fighting the FIRE sector, the extractive finance, insurance and real estate businesses, he was on Joe Rogan explaining manufacturing to idiot politicians, that's worth a listen. In China he wouldn't have to worry, the government would do it ruthlessly on his behalf, Alibaba is one such example.

[SenPai_GTi]

Reaching level 5 autonomy is not a dream anymore. But providing it to the consumer market at an affordable rate is going to be a very big and challenging task. Since Tesla decided on monthly subscriptions for full self drive(FSD), it is going to be difficult for the current users to keep their costs in check. Unless Tesla somehow manages to setup servers at very low costs (basing more operations in China), it is going to be nearly impossible for them to hand out subscriptions in large quantities.

[Singh101]

Originally Posted by Hayek

Elon Musk is a classic example of how even in the US, the law is not the same for everybody.

What do you mean "even in the US", good sir?! The United States of Oil, Guns and Cheese is probably the worst offender on the planet when it comes to the judiciary being bent to accomodate a capitalist's utopia. This, without even getting into the marginalization of blacks and other minorities with buckets of white privilege dumped on top.

Back on topic, I agree with GTO that despite the so-called experts having conniptions about what Elon Musk says and what their products are currently capable of, Tesla is infact far ahead of the competition when it comes to battery tech, propulsion and yes, even "self" driving. This, primarily being because of the number of cars they have on the road, all of them with their suite of cameras and sensors constantly analyzing and collecting data for Tesla to continuously refine and improve their services.

I'm no expert obviously, call me crazy even but when I hear Elon Musk- the man who visualised an Electrified future back in 2008 talk about things he's well versed with, a lot with which he's hands-on with, I tend to believe him. He says he's confident about his choice of a bank of cameras coupled with some other sensors because that is actually how human beings perceive their surroundings, instead of the competition starting from scratch with LiDAR and I can't see any reason (yet) to doubt his claims.

Has he jumped the gun? But of course.
- Not a single autonomous Taxi on the road yet, let alone a million.
- God only knows when the new Roadster is coming.
- CyBeRtRuCk. 'Nuff said.

Despite all this though, he's stayed true to his vision of starting with an expensive electric sports car, to building expensive electric family cars to finally making accessible electric cars for the masses -and that's commendable. He's backed up that vision with a supercharger network that his competition will take y-e-a-r-s to catch up to while completely reimagining what a car actually is.

A physics defying 2.3s 0-60 mph doesn't hurt either.

I see sincerity, conviction and a touch of manic zeal in his expressions when he talks about things he's so clearly passionate about.

I'm not asking people to blindly believe and fanboy over him. I also think people are hawkishly quick when it comes to criticizing or being dismissive of him. I'd personally rather tread a measured, well informed middle ground and hope others do the same.

[SKC-auto]

Wanted to share a small video of Tesla FSD v8.2 on busy streets. See how it is waiting for people to cross the road, waiting for the truck to move, and it's turn to cross a van. Musk is hyping about the v9 coming in few weeks to few beta users. Forget Lidar the v9 will not be using the radar also, pure vision based Autonomous driving. If not in 2021, I am sure AVs will be a thing in 2025.

https://youtu.be/ghGN6tan4AM

[vamsi.kona]

Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj

Earlier this year, Elon Musk had reportedly told investors that he was confident that Tesla cars will be able to drive themselves with reliability, by the end of 2021. However, Tesla representatives have informed the DMV that the cars are highly unlikely to achieve Level 5 autonomy by the end of the year.

If this is what Musk has said, then that isn't much as he hasn't stated it as a fact, rather, as a probable achievement he is confident of. Is he overstating his expectations? Certainly Yes. But that would be different from Overstating facts about a product.

[Mustang Sammy]

Originally Posted by Hayek

Elon Musk is a classic example of how even in the US, the law is not the same for everybody. Any ordinary CEO who made such blatantly false statements about the performance of his company would likely end up with massive SEC fines or in jail. And his behaviour with respect to Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Shitcoin and other such Ponzi schemes is what would be called a Pump and Dump fraud if done by anyone else. The day the current stock market bubble bursts (and I have seen plenty of bubbles in my time - they all burst, but you never can know when), the Tesla stock and all these other rubbish “assets” will collapse and I will not be surprised if Musk ends up like Jeffrey Schilling or Bernie Madoff. But as long as everyone is making money, no one has the incentive to rock the boat despite the most egregious conduct I have ever seen from a Public Company CEO.

Well said. Amazing how he is treated as a god by all his acolytes, and even takes credit for creating Tesla, which is patently untrue.
Am still waiting for the day when the company posts a real profit, not one that is subsidized by taxpayers through the carbon credits scam.
There are also plenty of well researched articles that describe the true environmental impact of electric vehicles, such as the massive pollution caused by rare earth and Lithium extraction. IMHO the only benefit they currently offer is lower pollution in high density human habitation.