REMEMBER THAT JOKEY POSTER that used to be in some pubs? It said, “Free beer. Tomorrow.” Because, as we all know, tomorrow never comes.
Well, perhaps someone should show that poster to Elon Musk.
He’s been promising us (and anyone else who will listen) that autonomous driving will become a reality “next year”. And he’s been saying it virtually every year for more than ten years.
Tesla Cybertruck owner Jonathan Challinger owns the truck you see above.
He had it in “Full Self Driving” (FSD) mode when the car “crashed into a curb and a light post” after failing to “merge out of a lane that was ending”.
Like many Tesla owners, Challinger was probably lulled into a false sense of security, even though Tesla recommends that its FSD software requires drivers to be engaged and ready to take over at all times.
For some time, regulators have been investigating Tesla’s driver assistance software, and Musk’s blatantly misleading marketing.
Over the years, FSD has been linked to literally hundreds of crashes and dozens of deaths. It is has also resulted in countless lawsuits.
So what are we to make of Musk’s claim that an “unsupervised” version of FSD is to be made available later this year? We’d suggest not holding your breath.
It’s hard to understand the loyalty that Tesla generates among owners. The latest incident highlights some of the glaring shortcomings of the technology.
We were discussing this recently on David Brown’s podcast, DrivenMedia, and the fact that Elon Musk has finally admitted that full self-driving will not happen with the vehicle’s current hardware.
“The truth is that we’re gonna have to upgrade people’s Hardware 3 (computers) for those who have bought the Full Self Driving,” admitted the world’s richest man.
Elon admitting that he’s wrong? Expect the sun to rise in the west tomorrow morning!
Our thanks to reader Denis B for bringing this to our attention
See our story on Cybertruck fatalities here