Tesla is regularly in the sights of the American authorities. One of the recurring points of tension concerns the functionalities of Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, on which the two camps seem to camp on their position.
The years go by, and Tesla’s Autopilot functionalities as well as its advanced version (Full Self-Driving or FSD) continue to be debated, including in the highest American authorities. The exchanges of letters between the brand and the senators continue, without anyone seeing how the situation could find a favorable outcome. Latest: a letter in February from the senators, to which Tesla replied on March 4, as noted by The Verge.
On the one hand, Tesla ensures that its systems are reliable, at least more than human driving. On the other side, some senators, the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) and the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) remain insensitive to the arguments of the brand and point out the shortcomings of the system.
Tesla keeps moving forward without caring too much about the critics
This method is not really new for the automaker. Under the leadership of its CEO, Elon Musk, the brand is used to deploying software developments, without necessarily going through the authorizations and test phases required by the authorities.
Tesla even grants itself a few liberties with respect to the highway code. At the start of the year, the manufacturer was caught up by the authorities for vehicles that did not stop at stops in semi-autonomous driving. The brand was forced to go through a recall procedure for its vehicles to rectify the situation, even if the recall was limited to an Over-The-Air update of the Tesla models concerned.
Answers that do not allay the concerns of senators
Although there are certainly political issues behind these exchanges, in addition to the security aspect, the exchanges seem to be going in circles.
In their previous correspondence to Tesla, the senators stated that ” complaints and investigations paint a troubling picture: Tesla routinely releases software without considering the risks and implications, creating grave dangers for all road users. »
In his response to the senators, Rohan Patel, director of public policy, maintains that the system is safe, and that the accident figures for Teslas in Autopilot mode are well below the national average of accidents. .
The brand also specifies that it supports the use of these new services through the user manual and video tutorials to improve the use of the systems. You can view the full post of Patel’s response online. After the classic read the f*cking manual (literally “read the fucking manual”), Tesla somehow inaugurates the ” watch the f*cking tutorial to get rid of the misuse of Full Self-Driving. Not sure that the argument will fly with the senators.