Tesla ordered by auto regulators to provide data on ‘Elon mode’ configuration
cnbc.com
cnbc.com
This makes it sound much more dramatic than it was (I watched the video). The car mistook a green arrow for a green light, and started to move forward, and Musk stopped it. It was pretty low key. Musk had his hands off the wheel during the drive because he was holding the phone streaming the video, but he was clearly alert and aware of what the car was doing — that's what the conversation with Elluswamy was mostly about.
A nag-free test mode makes a lot of sense for the engineers testing the cars. I don't see anything wrong with that.
The National Highway Transportation Administration is charged with the safety of the public foremost, not Tesla's stock price.
They will conduct their investigation, ask for whatever information they want. If it is no big deal, they will say so, not Elon on social media, or you parroting whatever he wants you to.
2. I don't care about Tesla's stock price. I don't own any. Don't care about the NHTSA either — not American.
3. I'm not parroting anything — I watched the video before I saw the article, and thought the tone of the article was off.
Video link: https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1djxXlVLaLOxZ
The intervention is ~19:50
It's arguable whether he was compliant to the regulatory requirement that the test-driver is able to take control of the car at any time.
In a standard car, at least -most- countries would not consider him capable to properly operate the vehicle in such a state.
This might sound like nitpicking, but only until he hits YOUR car because he was distracted by filming a video of his new beta software which was glitching out...
Why does Elon get a pass for brazenly breaking CA laws? This billionaire can’t afford a phone mount? Or even a passenger to hold it? Why is the public subjected to being unpaid test dummies?
I think you meant "A nag free test mode for lab bench and test track use..."
(I agree fully with you, I’m just being a bit glib.)
If there is a cheat code and it has been potentially leaked by employees the public surely has a right to know about it.
I don’t think that there’s a hidden command to do so from the dashboard, but surely they can do it remotely. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a “if user === elon” condition just like on Twitter
The original article mentions that it could be enabled via “cheat code” but nothing points towards that, so my hardcoded condition is just as good a speculation.
A better article: https://electrek.co/2023/06/22/tesla-autopilot-elon-mode-not...
Why do people put up with this? Seems absolutely insane to connect a car's functionality to the internet, aside maybe from remote start. Where are the legislators? Where are the regulatory bodies?
Tesla’s backend for fleet management at least used to be an absolute shit show that barely worked on the best day.
Apart from that, remember when (I think it was?) Troy Hunt published an article on how trivial it was to control some in-car features with nothing but a VIN and Internet connection?
There are certainly ways to do these things correctly. But until those measures are required by law and are -actually- implemented both consistently and sanely, it’ll be an intermittent bad time. The auto industry can barely get hardware security right, let alone electronic and digital security.
The main difference is as far as I know those have a fairly segregate gap between cockpit infotainment and safety critical vehicle functions, including separate CAN buses and CAN gateways.
With Tesla I am not sure as they seem to have thrown away every lesson in Automotive design and started from scratch.
In this case, however, the question is irrelevant - the FSD system is clearly part of operating the vehicle, it’s safety relevant and not there for infotainment.
All their marketing (I'm sorry, I forgot, Tesla doesn't do marketing) is all about the safety of FSD/AP and their vehicles in general. The reality is very much "we have to be dragged kicking and screaming into most safety improvements".
And it's a rather shitty system in general considering my hands are always on the wheel and I have to constantly manually apply resistance.
So maybe don't hate on a theoretical 15m window. Sounds kind of amazing. It's not like the car doesn't constantly demands you take over outside of this nag...
tesla.com/autopilot doesn't hide this. The video that's the main feature of the page (from many years ago) starts out saying the person in driver seat is only there for legal reasons.
It's ridiculous what they've gotten away with.
2016 it was fifteen minutes. 2017, it was reduced to five minutes. And from then down to where it is now.
> One of the findings was alarming. According to the NTSB, an agency that rarely investigates auto accidents and usually spends years delving into plane crashes: "[d]uring the last 41 minutes of [Joshua] Brown's trip, the Model S was in Autopilot for 37.5 minutes …. Brown had his hands off the wheel for a total of 37 minutes during the time the car was in Autopilot."
> "The Model S displayed the visual warning 'hold steering wheel' seven times during the trip."
Having a testing configuration doesn’t strike me as a problem, but it seems like it would be very important that the testing configuration be managed very carefully, and only applied to the appropriate vehicles that are intended to be operated under testing conditions.
Why do people fail/refuse to grasp this really simple thing?
National Highway Transportation Administration is responsible for public safety in these matters, and will investigate the situation, and they will make a determination.
Tired of Elon's psyops shit.