As Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) owners continue to wait for Elon Musk to come through on his "full self-driving" promise, recent reports indicate fully autonomous capabilities might be further away than most think, or at least that they were in 2016.
What To Know: According to a CNN report from January citing testimony from a senior Tesla engineer, a video Tesla used to promote its self-driving technology in 2016 was staged.
The video, which remains archived on Tesla's website, made it look like the vehicle was capable of stopping at red lights and accelerating off the line on its own, but testimony from Ashok Elluswamy, director of autopilot software at Tesla, showed the vehicle was not capable of such.
"The intent of the video was not to accurately portray what was available for customers in 2016. It was to portray what was possible to build into the system," Elluswamy said, per Reuters.
Elluswamy's testimony marked the first time a Tesla employee confirmed how the video was produced. The Tesla engineer noted Tesla used 3D mapping on a predetermined route to stage the video. Drivers reportedly had to take over control of the vehicle during the test runs. One even crashed into a fence in Tesla's parking lot, Elluswamy said.