They say there’s nothing like trying things out for yourself and Elon Musk He must be convinced of this because, after talking all kinds of wonders about Tesla’s fully autonomous driving, he encouraged his investors to try it so they could understand the brand, now that it is focusing on being a robotaxi company.
Stock market analyst William Stein, who is in charge of evaluating Teslalistened to the head of the electric car company, but the experience could not have been more negative: far from understanding the benefits that Elon Musk talks about, he almost had an accident.
Tesla’s autonomous driving is still very green
Elon Musk has been praising the fully autonomous driving of his cars for many years, that is, the software FSD (Full Self Driving) and Autopilot, but the reality is that these systems do not work as well as they should. And as time goes by, Tesla’s autonomous driving is still not a benchmark; in fact, other manufacturers have much more effective systems.
In any case, Elon Musk remains convinced of how good the fully autonomous driving of his cars is, or so he wants to convey to the rest of the world, to the point that he thinks it is perfect for the company’s future robotaxis, now that he intends to transform the company to manufacture this type of autonomous cars.
He is so proud of the technology that he has encouraged Tesla investors to try it, telling them they won’t understand the brand unless they use its fully autonomous driving.
It’s something similar to what happened when Elon Musk himself presented the Tesla Cybertruck and encouraged the public to throw a steel ball at its windows to test its armor. That experiment went wrong and so did the test of autonomous driving.
William Stein, stock market analyst of Truist Securities and in charge of rating the value of Tesla shares, listened to Elon Musk and decided to test the company’s autonomous driving in a Tesla Model Y. Far from being happy, he had a bad experience because he almost “ate” the car in front of him because of this technology.
“The Model Y accelerated through an intersection when the car in front of us had only partially completed a right turn,” Stein wrote in a report he submitted to his clients on Monday and which has been reviewed by the company. Automotive News“My quick intervention was absolutely necessary to prevent an otherwise certain accident.”
Stein tested Tesla’s FSD on two occasions, the first time saying that the technology is “incredibly good, but not useful today” and in his report after the second test he noted that “it’s no better than before, arguably worse.” It was during that second test that he nearly had an accident.
This analyst criticizes the excessive permissiveness of the system, saying that at one point he took his hands off the wheel and looked away from the road to see what was happening while his son monitored from the seat next to him and that the system operated under these conditions for a while before issuing a warning. “I turned my head completely away from the road and the system remained activated for 20 to 40 seconds before issuing a warning,” Stein said.
In addition to having to intervene to avoid the accident with the car in front, Stein had to take control of the car at another time, when a police officer waved his hand to indicate that he had to move to the side of the road to allow a funeral procession to pass.
“Finally, on one section of our route, the road was narrow and curvy, and had a solid white line separating the lanes, indicating that lane changing was prohibited. Even so, the Model Y changed lanes twice in that condition,” said Sein, who concluded his report by noting that FSD technology is “truly amazing,” but it doesn’t even come close to what Elon Musk promises.
Source: www.motorpasion.com
