Even more troubling is when the video’s demo Model X failed to park itself sans driver, it crashed into a fence. “The intent of the video was not to accurately portray what was available for customers in 2016. It was to portray what was possible to build into the system,” Elluswamy said.
Musk, meanwhile, had this to say when he shared the video on Twitter: “Tesla drives itself (no human input at all) thru urban streets to highway to streets, then finds a parking spot.”
The engineer, still employed at Tesla, also admitted that drivers could “fool the system” by making the software think they were paying attention based on steering wheel feedback. There were, however, no safety issues if drivers did pay attention, Elluswamy said.
An NHTSA investigation into Huang’s deadly crash determined it was caused by his being distracted and Autopilot limitations.