Tesla allegedly 'staged' a video in 2016 which promoted the company's AI 'self-driving' Autopilot technology, a senior engineer at the firm has claimed.
The 2016 video of a Model X driving through city streets as a driver keeps their hands off the wheel was shared at the time by company CEO Elon Musk in a tweet.
He captioned it: "Tesla drives itself (no human input at all)" and added: "When searching for parking, the car reads the signs to see if it is allowed to park there, which is why it skipped the disabled spot."
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However, Autopilot director Ashok Elluswamy has reportedly testified that the video was staged.
In a 2022 transcript that is now being used in a legal case against Tesla following a car crash, Mr Elluswamy said the video did not "accurately portray what was available for customers in 2016."
He added: "It was to portray what was possible to build into the system."
During the making of the video, the Tesla in question was allegedly following a pre-planned route and drivers reportedly took control of the car during trial run.
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Tesla, which does not routinely offer statements to the media, says on its website: "until truly driverless cars are validated and approved by regulators, drivers are responsible for and must remain in control of their car at all times."
The video clip in question was previously archived on the Tesla website, but the page in question now produces an error message when accessed.
Elon Musk has not commented on the issue publicly on his Twitter page.
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