If you buy yourself a Tesla equipped with the FSD autonomous driving system, the Autopilot is very likely to perform worse than Elon Musk’s. According to an investigation by the media Business Insider, Tesla has preferences when it comes to developing its self-driving software.
Elon Musk’s brand uses the data recorded by its cars to “teach” the FSD software how to drive, but apparently, the cars of Elon Musk and the company’s VIP influencers have preferential treatment to receive improvements.
Not ideal for a company that aims to be the benchmark for autonomous driving
Tesla has managed to become the world’s first electric car manufacturer, and although BYD is hot on its heels, everything points to it still being the leader by the end of 2024. However, its founder and CEO, Elon Musk, wants to stop focusing on electric cars and turn Tesla into a robotaxi company, “a mix of Airbnb and Uber.”
To achieve this, Tesla must further develop its technology. autonomous drivingwhich will be complemented by Artificial Intelligence so that the robotaxis dreamed of by Elon Musk can circulate around the world without a driver.
The good news for Tesla is that it has already done a good part of the work because it has been developing FSD (Full Self Driving), its fully autonomous driving software, and Autopilot for years, which will be essential for implementing robotaxis.
Part of this development consists of Collect and analyze a lot of datas to “teach” the autonomous driving system to make correct decisions when it takes control of the vehicle. This means that Tesla takes advantage of the thousands and thousands of kilometers that its cars travel, as if they were guinea pigs, to analyze all kinds of real-life situations and improve the FSD software.
But, as Business Insider has investigated, Tesla could be misusing its resources because it would prioritize data from Elon Musk and other VIP drivers to train the self-driving software of the Teslas used by these people. This would make the brand’s self-driving system work better in these cars than in other Teslas.
The data recorded by all Tesla cars is analysed by humans, and these workers are responsible for improving the software, teaching it, for example, when to put on the turn signal or how to identify a cone marking a construction zone in the middle of the road.
Obviously, teaching some cars better than others is not the best decision from a corporate point of view because Tesla should focus on improving its autonomous driving software without establishing preferences, so that the FSD of the car driven by the company’s CEO is more effective than that of the Tesla that anyone can buy.
It is not ideal in a serious manufacturer which also aims to be the benchmark in autonomous driving, but we already know how Elon Musk does things, so Business Insider’s investigation makes sense. What’s more, this medium assures that has spoken to 12 people who currently work or have worked at Tesla. All but one have wished to remain anonymous, but support this theory that Tesla makes some of its cars more technologically advanced than others.
What these Tesla workers who are in charge of analyzing the data collected by the cars say is that the images and video clips The data recorded by the Teslas driven by Elon Musk are analysed much more meticulously, as is the case with the cars of “high-profile” drivers, such as some YouTubers and influencers. What’s more, they say they were ordered to take more time with the data from Musk’s vehicles and subject it to an additional round of quality control.
Some of those employees said they recalled processing and labeling data associated with the Tesla founder, such as a route he took to and from his California mansion in 2021 or routes in and out of Tesla’s factories in Austin and Fremont, as well as the offices of SpaceX, another of Elon Musk’s companies, in Hawthorne, California, and the headquarters of X (formerly Twitter) in San Francisco, which is now another of Musk’s companies.
“It seems pretty clear that Elon’s experience would be better than anyone else’s,” said one former Tesla employee. “He was seeing the software at its best.” Another added that “It seemed like we were purposely upgrading his car so that Autopilot would look different than it did.” We found it dishonest.“.
The result, Business Insider notes, is that Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD software can better navigate the routes Elon Musk and other drivers routinely take, making their journeys smoother and easier.
Source: www.motorpasion.com
