[HN Gopher] Former Tesla employees say 2016 'Full Self-Driving' ...
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       Former Tesla employees say 2016 'Full Self-Driving' video was
       staged
        
       Author : incomplete
       Score  : 42 points
       Date   : 2021-12-07 20:10 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.thedrive.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.thedrive.com)
        
       | maxharris wrote:
       | I recommend reading Alberto Savoia's book, "The Right It: Why So
       | Many Ideas Fail and How to Make Sure Yours Succeed"
       | 
       | One of the examples that Savoia provides in his book is
       | especially helpful to recall here:
       | 
       | Back in the 1960s, IBM was trying to figure out if they should
       | make a massive investment in building a speech recognition
       | product. Rather than betting the company on an expensive idea
       | without being certain of the market for it, they simulated the
       | speech recognizer by putting a secretary in another room with a
       | mic, leaving the test subject with the impression that their
       | commands were going directly into the computer in the room.
       | 
       | By doing this, IBM figured out that even if they made a perfect
       | speech recognizer, their customers wouldn't use it! They were
       | concerned about privacy, found typing to be faster and more
       | precise, etc. Rather than investing huge sums of cash on a dud,
       | they were able to put it towards the System 360 line, which
       | turned out rather well :)
        
         | empressplay wrote:
         | Right, this is really what's meant by the phrase "fake it until
         | you make it" -- not that you should make claims that aren't
         | true (even though they may be someday) but that you should
         | simulate automating processes in a similar fashion to your
         | anecdote before actually spending the time and money to
         | automate them, even though up front you're likely to lose money
         | on having humans do what you eventually want computers (or
         | robots, in the case of Amazon warehouses) to do.
        
       | pedalpete wrote:
       | Is "staged" the right description here? I was worried we were
       | looking at a Nikola type event, but that's not what this is.
       | 
       | Just because the route was mapped with lidar, etc. doesn't make
       | this a non-self-driving car. It drove itself under the supplied
       | conditions. It wasn't like they had plotted the route with the
       | stops and starts, etc. From what I understand the system just had
       | prior knowledge of the route. This is in comparison to any other
       | self-driving which MUST have prior understanding of the route, vs
       | Tesla's current product which apparently can make all decisions
       | on the fly.
        
       | gadnuk wrote:
       | Here is a good timeline (complete with Elon's tweets) for Tesla's
       | self driving capabilities.
       | 
       | He has been lying about it for 5 years now and has been stringing
       | on Tesla customers with statements like, "It's almost there!" and
       | "Next version will blow your mind!" etc
       | 
       | https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfDrivingCars/comments/n6nsmt/elo...
       | 
       | It's stunning how he has gotten away with lies for so long.
        
         | protoax wrote:
         | Agreed, imagine paying thousands of dollars for a software
         | product that is never delivered and continues to be pushed
         | forward to the next year for five years running - it's
         | unbelievable a solid case hasn't been brought against the
         | company. Only a performer like Musk with such an influence on
         | his fans could pull something like that off.
        
         | a9h74j wrote:
         | Not a lawyer, but don't "excusable" errors done for profit
         | enter the legal category of fraud?
        
         | k12sosse wrote:
         | Personally, I love being in command and control of 1000+ pounds
         | of steel and liquid, seemingly propelled based on the angle of
         | my foot. I wouldn't have it any other way!
         | 
         | I think autonomous travel would be a great experiment for
         | locomotives on isolated tracks.
        
       | KennyBlanken wrote:
       | > The Drive could not reach out to Tesla to verify or contest the
       | claims, as the automaker dissolved its communications and public
       | relations department some time ago. The New York Times says that
       | neither Musk nor a top Tesla lawyer responded to requests for
       | comments over several weeks.
       | 
       | I always thought it funny that Musk saw this as some sort of 4D
       | chess move and not a tacit admission that his company's
       | products/behavior suck so much, he had to effectively nail a "No
       | comment" placard on the front door.
       | 
       | You know what would be awesome? Say negative PR about Tesla comes
       | up, and someone from Tesla calls/emails/tweets a reporter to
       | provide a statement...the reporter ignores them, or tells them to
       | go pound sand, because given Tesla does not have a communications
       | or public relations department, someone from Tesla couldn't
       | possibly be contacting them in an official capacity to provide an
       | authorized statement.
        
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       (page generated 2021-12-07 23:03 UTC)