A fan of Tesla might think that the automaker just can’t catch a break when it comes to its autonomous driving tech. It’s already subject to several federal investigations over its marketing and deployment of technologies like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD), and as of last week, we can add another to the list involving around 2.4 million Tesla vehicles. This time, regulators are assessing the cars’ performance in low-visibility conditions after four documented accidents, one of which resulted in a fatality.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says this new probe is looking at instances when FSD was engaged when it was foggy or a lot of dust was in the air, or even when glare from the sun blinded the car’s cameras and this caused a problem.
What the car can “see” is the big issue here. It’s also what Tesla bet its future on.
It’s hilarious because every single time he speaks about some unique aspect of starship that goes against conventional rocketry wisdom, like “we don’t need flame trenches. You get more efficiency on flat ground”, we just have to wait a year or two and all of a sudden they’re adding back the thing they tried to do without (see tower 2 flame trench going in as we speak).
Then they brag about doing the thing everyone else was already doing as if it was some new concept and his Muskrats eat it up.
He needs to risk something to care. As long as his bubble keeps floating, he can sell everything to institutions, businesses and consumers. With existing baby mittens he is cared by, he can openly scam people and burn money with a flamethrower without any repercussions.
It sucks because the talent and skill on display over there is insane and incredible, they really work so hard to achieve never before things. But he has to speak and be the key man PR idiot and diminish those amazing accomplishments.