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It turns out not even the people building Tesla\u2019s self-driving tech trust Elon Musk\u2019s extravagant claims about the company\u2019s autonomous vehicles.<\/p>\n
New reporting by Reuters<\/a> interviewed nine former data labelers and a former self-driving engineer about their take on Tesla\u2019s Full Self-Driving mode. The results were overwhelmingly negative, with seven of the data specialists admitting they wouldn\u2019t ride in a Tesla in FSD.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have all seen it fail,\u201d one Tesla insider told Reuters. \u201cDefinitely don\u2019t trust Elon on this,\u201d the self-driving engineer concurred, referencing Musks\u2019 declaration<\/a> that the the vehicles are ready for \u201csafe unsupervised\u201d rides.<\/p>\n One erstwhile worker told the publication they wouldn\u2019t ride in a Tesla robotaxi \u201cif you f**king paid me.\u201d<\/p>\n At least five data labelers, whose job was to comb through hours of FSD footage to train the vehicle\u2019s software to avoid past mistakes, told Reuters they routinely saw clips of Teslas driving above the speed limit, an issue which engineers and managers treated like a low-priority compared to edge-case issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n Those glowing recommendations come amidst concerns that Tesla\u2019s FSD mode may never be truly safe enough<\/a> for public roads.<\/p>\n In recent months, Tesla operating on FSD move have driven riders into lakes<\/a>, off bridges<\/a>, and even into the path of oncoming trains<\/a> \u2014 and those are just the incidents that get media exposure. Given these insiders\u2019 direct access to terabytes\u2019 worth of proprietary FSD footage, we\u2019re inclined to take their word on it.<\/p>\n