- Rivian boss thinks we won’t be able to drive within 18 months
- This will be “the most disruptive feature we’ve seen,” according to RJ Scaringe.
- But a new report suggests Tesla engineers and staff don’t trust the technology.
Rivian boss and CEO RJ Scaringe believes we will see increasing levels of autonomous driving in the coming months.
Speaking to Top Gear during a test drive of the upcoming R2, which the company hopes will be its first electric SUV with true mass appeal, Scaringe revealed he thinks we’ll move from level two to level three, which includes hands-off, eye-less autonomous driving, in “the next 18 months”.
He also said he believes we will reach true Level 4 autonomous driving by the end of the decade. At this point, vehicles will be able to perform all driving tasks in geotagged areas.
Human passengers are relieved of their duties because Level 4 autonomous vehicles should be able to reach a safe state in the event of a system failure. This is the level at which most fully autonomous robo-taxis currently operate, but it is not something that has been made commercially viable to date.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has regularly stated that the company’s self-driving technology is capable of allowing those behind the wheel to “text and drive” as well as engage in other distracting secondary tasks.
But a recent PK Press Club report appears to contradict that claim, saying that even those who work closely with the systems don’t trust them.
In speaking with nine former Tesla data labelers, a former self-driving engineer and 11 road safety researchers, the PK Press Club report found that seven of the former data labelers said they would not trust FSD to drive them.
“We all saw him fail,” one said. Another said he wouldn’t ride in a Tesla robotaxi “if you paid me.”
A veteran self-driving engineer who has examined Tesla’s crash data for years has called its safety claims “bullshit.”
The report goes on to claim that Tesla’s FSD accident reports are confusing and misleading, refuting its claims that the technology is “10 times safer than a human.”
Analysis: Hype doesn’t help
Data labelers PK Press Club spoke to have the unenviable task of reviewing images from eight exterior cameras on Tesla vehicles using Fully Self-Driving (FSD).
You could say they only see the bad sides of FSD, but most of those surveyed confessed to regularly seeing the technology fail at basic tasks, like stopping for emergency vehicles, allowing enough space for motorcyclists and bicyclists, and even avoiding construction zones.
Additionally, a specialized group, known internally and informally as the “trauma team,” said it focuses on near misses and other dangerous situations.
One person said they saw clips showing drivers manually taking over at the last second when FSD failed to recognize pedestrians in crosswalks.
Two other former employees recalled seeing videos last year of FSD-driven Teslas nearly hitting children.
The CEOs of Rivian and Tesla believe that improvements to the large language models and microchips that power modern vehicles will accelerate the introduction of higher levels of automation in passenger vehicles, but it’s much more complicated than that, involving driver education, legislation and more.
Many believe that allowing motorists to engage in secondary tasks and effectively hand over driving tasks to the vehicle requires the technology to be perfect, not just “safer than a human driver.”
Over-inflating the technology’s capabilities has already led to confusion and complacency among users, which, in Tesla’s case at least, has already resulted in myriad lawsuits and ongoing regulatory scrutiny.
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