Tesla Admits CEO Elon Musk Overstated About 'Full Self-Driving' Capabilities

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has often seen making numerous tall claims for its electric vehicle manufacturing company, Tesla. One such overstatement was regarding the company's advanced driver assist system. According to a report from IANS, the EV maker has privately admitted that such claims made by CEO Elon Musk do not match up with engineering reality. The company's director of Autopilot software told the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) that Musk has been exaggerating the capabilities of Tesla's advanced driver assist system. These comments came from an internal memo obtained by the transparency portal Plainsite, which obtained the documents from a public records request.

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Tesla's director of Autopilot said Elon's tweet does not match engineering reality

Tesla's director of Autopilot software CJ Moore told the California DMV that, Elon's tweet does not match engineering reality per CJ. Tesla is at Level 2 currently."

For starters, Level 2 technology refers to a semi-automated driving system, which requires supervision by a human driver. The memo shows that Musk has inflated the capabilities of the Autopilot advanced driver assistance system in Tesla vehicles, as well the company's ability to deliver fully autonomous features by the end of the year.

Tesla's electric vehicles come equipped with a driver assistance system called 'Autopilot', which enhances safety and convenience behind the steering wheel. This system reduces the overall workload of a driver, when used properly. By paying an additional $10,000, customers can purchase Tesla vehicles with full self-driving or FSD that Musk claims can deliver full autonomous driving capabilities. The FSD capabilities comprise navigate on Autopilot, Auto Lane Change, Summon (moving car in and out of a tight space using the mobile app or key), Smart Summon (car navigating through more complex environments and parking spaces); Traffic and Stop Sign Control (Beta) and Autosteer on city streets (upcoming).

Notedly, Tesla electric vehicles are still not driving on their own and are far from reaching that level of autonomy. During an earning meeting which happened in January, Musk reportedly told investors he was highly confident that the cars will be able to drive autonomously with a reliability above human this year. However, the company is unlikely to achieve level 5 (L5) autonomy by the end of this year.

Musk reportedly told investors that the cars will be able to drive autonomously with a reliability above human this year.

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The DMV memo read, "The ratio of driver interaction would need to be in the magnitude of 1 or 2 million miles per driver interaction to move into higher levels of automation. Tesla indicated that Elon is extrapolating on the rates of improvement when speaking about L5 capabilities. Tesla couldn't say if the rate of improvement would make it to L5 by end of the calendar year."

There have been several accidents involving Tesla electric car with autopilot feature enabled. The latest took place in Texas in which two men were killed after the EV crashed into a tree. The 2019 Tesla Model S was believed to be operating without anyone in the driver's seat. The accident happened amid growing scrutiny over Tesla's semi-automated driving system following recent accidents and as it is preparing to launch its updated 'full self-driving' software to more customers.