Comment by yihtserns | Hacker News Reader

Comment by yihtserns | Hacker News Reader

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From https://web.archive.org/web/20211002045634/https://www.tesla...:

> Tesla cars come standard with advanced hardware capable of providing Autopilot features, and *full self-driving capabilities* — through software updates designed to improve functionality over time.

> Tesla's Autopilot AI team drives the future of autonomy of current and new generations of vehicles. Learn about the team and apply to help accelerate the world with *full self-driving*.

Now you can say that can be interpreted multiple ways - which means the copywriter is either incompetent, or intentionally misleading. Interestingly, the text from 2019 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191225054133/tesla.com/autopil...) is written a bit differently:

> ...full self-driving capabilities *in the future*...

The crash in this case occurred on April 25, 2019. The advertising then was that the cars had the hardware for self driving in the future.

Context:

> > > What behavior do you want them to change?

> > Don't advertise their driver assist system as "full self driving".

> The system involved in this crash was never advertised as "full self driving".

I assume "system involved in this crash" is referring to "Tesla Autopilot"; my reply was to contradict the statement '...*was never* advertised as "full self driving"'.

But you mentioning a date made me curious about when the advert text was changed:

- "...in the future" was added ~1.5 months before the accident: https://web.archive.org/web/20190306042234/https://www.tesla...

- "...in the future" was removed ~1.5 months after that lawsuit was filed: https://web.archive.org/web/20210603132215/https://www.tesla...

It's a dumb argument anyway. Most normies think autopilot means the plane flies itself. At the very least they think it flies itself except for landing or takeoff. By the technical definition of an autopilot perhaps they were correct, but not by the colloquial meaning

It won't happen, but I really wish to see Tesla lawyers telling the court "we know the advert text, video, and the term 'Autopilot' are misleading, but they're just, you know, 'corporate puffery'".

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