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Truth is stranger than fiction.
You can't make this stuff up. A report says Tesla told its Autopilot trainers to ignore certain traffic signs while programming the electric automaker's advanced driver assistance system technology.
"Tesla Inc. employees who review and label video clips to help train the company's Autopilot software were told to ignore signs banning U-turns and right turns on red lights," according to a report from Business Insider.
The report said they interviewed 17 current and former workers on the electric vehicle maker's data annotation team, split among New York, California, and Utah offices. The workers spend their days watching 30-second recordings captured by cameras on the outside and inside of Tesla vehicles.
Trainers were instructed to not teach Autopilot to follow certain traffic signs, a practice that could potentially lead to unsafe driving conditions and accidents.
These Tesla employees, working on the Autopilot technology, are required to understand driving regulations from all over the world. Some trainers revealed that they "were instructed to not teach Autopilot to follow certain traffic signs."
"It's a driver-first mentality. I think the idea is we want to train it to drive like a human would, not a robot that's just following the rules," one former worker told Business Insider.
What does Tesla say about Autopilot?
"Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (Supervised) 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. While these features are designed to become more capable over time, the currently enabled features do not make the vehicle autonomous."
Tesla trainers have a video quota.
The report says," Tesla closely monitors the data annotation workers with surveillance cameras as well as software that tracks their speed and keystrokes."
Some workers, particularly those in the data annotation team, told the publication they were required to spend five to seven and a half hours annotating videos on each shift, depending on their role, and could be fired if they fell even five minutes short of that minimum three times in six months.
"Sometimes it can get monotonous," an ex-Tesla employee said. "You could spend eight hours a day for months on end just labeling lane lines and curbs across thousands of videos."
Some workers told Business Insider that they were told to prioritize fixing self-driving software flaws experienced by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and customers who post videos of their vehicles on YouTube.
Tesla says, "The currently enabled Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (Supervised) features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous."
"Full autonomy will be dependent on achieving reliability far in excess of human drivers as demonstrated by billions of miles of experience, as well as regulatory approval, which may take longer in some jurisdictions."
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I am Denis Flierl, a Senior Torque News Reporter since 2012. My 30+ year tenure in the automotive industry, initially in a consulting role with every major car brand and later as a freelance journalist test-driving new vehicles, has equipped me with a wealth of knowledge. I specialize in reporting the latest automotive news and providing expert analysis on Subaru, which you'll find here, ensuring that you, as a reader, are always well-informed and up-to-date. Follow me on my X SubaruReport, All Subaru, WRXSTI, @DenisFlierl, Facebook, and Instagram.
Photo credit: Denis Flierl via Tesla
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