This Tesla Video Promoted By Elon Musk Shows Vehicle 'Driving Itself,' But Tesla Engineer Reveals It Was Staged And Car Actually Crashed Into A Fence

As Tesla Inc 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.

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At the beginning of the video, Tesla noted, "The person in the driver’s seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself."

When the self-driving video was released in 2016, Musk took to Twitter to confirm the vehicle was driving on its own.

"Tesla drives itself (no human input at all) thru urban streets to highway to streets, then finds a parking spot," Musk said at the time, adding a link to the video.

A trial regarding old tweets from Musk came to a close last month after a jury found that the Tesla CEO did not deceive investors in 2018 when he tweeted that he had secured the necessary funding to take Tesla private. 

In mid-February, Tesla was forced to recall more than 360,000 vehicles after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that vehicles equipped with the beta version of Tesla's Full Self-Driving software presented safety challenges in and around intersections.

Per the recall notice, concerns included driving through intersections while in turn-only lanes, proceeding through intersections without coming to a complete stop at stop signs and unsafely entering intersections "without due caution" while traffic lights were flashing yellow.

See Also: Here's How Much $1,000 Invested In Tesla Will Be Worth If Cathie Wood's 2026 Price Target Comes True

Originally published on Jan. 17, 2023

Photo: Screenshot from 2016 video on Tesla's site.