Tesla’s $8,000 Full Self Driving Tech Gets Bashed By Consumer Report

Consumer Report's case study has bashed Tesla's full self-driving capability. The report Is critical of Tesla autopilot technology which it claims to be unreliable and not worthy of the $8000 price. it further goes and says that it is not fully safe for drivers or pedestrians. Tesla claims every new vehicle that comes out of its factories includes all the hardware necessary to make its cars capable of fully autonomous with over the air software updates. This it claims will  eventually make the cars capable of driving themselves. 

Autopilot technology has been notorious for crashes 

Consumer Reports ran its testing on the very latest software and hardware available: version 2020.24.6.4 on Hardware 3. As of right now, it says the tests show that Tesla drivers need to pay “significant driver attention” to ensure that the self-driving package does not cause safety issues.

“Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Capability are intended for use with a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment,” Tesla says on its Autopilot support site. 

“While these features are designed to become more capable over time, the currently enabled features do not make the vehicle autonomous,” the company. 

For now the Full Self-Driving capability, will include features that can assist the divers with parking, changing lanes on the highway and even coming to a complete stop at red light or traffic signs. The report questions its accountability. 

The report is critical of Tesla as it believes the company is being negligent with its software releases which can put people's lives at risk. “Tesla has repeatedly rolled out crude beta features, some of which can put people's safety at risk and shouldn't be used anywhere but on a private test track or proving ground,” says William Wallace, manager of safety policy for Consumer Reports.

Tesla Autopilot claims to have autonomous capabilities without LiDAR's

The result, Consumer Reports says, is that “full self-driving” is a misnomer. And, more than that, it's potentially a waste of money.

“Several of the features don't provide much in the way of real benefits to customers, despite the extremely high purchase price,” says Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing at Consumer Reports.

Tesla which became the most valued automotive company in the world earlier this year has been pushing its autopilot technology for a while. Its founder Elon Musk has claimed recently that using the Dojo supercomputer Tesla's autopilot technology will achieve a massive breakthrough. Despite this happening there have been numerous instances related to a Tesla being on autopilot with the driver not being attentive and causing an accident.