Tesla (TSLA) has to replace the ‘self-driving’ computer inside about 4 million vehicles or likely compensate the owners of those vehicles.
The liability could be more significant than the largest automotive recall in terms of cost.
In 2016, Tesla claimed that all its vehicles in production going forward have “all the hardware necessary for full self-driving capability.”
Tesla’s use of the term “full self-driving” has changed over the years, but at the time and for years later, CEO Elon Musk claimed that it would mean Tesla owners would eventually receive a software update that would turn their vehicles into “robotaxis” capable of level-4-5 self-driving, which means unsupervised autonomous driving even with no one in the cars.
Almost 10 years later, this has yet to happen and won’t happen soon in most of the cars Tesla has delivered over the last decade.
Archive link: https://archive.is/kJO23
TLDR: the marketing lies about full self driving are problematic given the computers of the last few gens are only marginally more capable then a toaster. Some lawsuits have made Tesla pay up, many more might.
Opinion: do not let your car kill you. Do not use full self driving.
Don’t let your car kill other people, if your expensive deathtrap kills you I feel bad but I can’t say it’s unexpected.
Full self driving isn’t full self driving anyway. You’re expected to sit in the drivers seat ready to take action anyway. Sucks that it kills people, but it’s a problem with the marketing, not the tech which is comparable to other cars adaptive cruise with lane keep assist. Musk should be held fully responsible because the fact that it’s a marketing issue makes it even worse to me.
