Tesla’s controversial Autopilot semi-autonomous driving technology has been the subject of recalls and safety investigations, and now an employee has detailed the worrying ways the brand handles its data.
Autopilot is a Level 2 autonomous driving system that now includes common features such as adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assistance.
American publication Business insider interviewed an anonymous member of Tesla’s Autopilot team who “trains” the driver assistance system (and its more powerful Full Self-Driving sister system) to perform more safely in the real world.
There are currently hundreds of new car deals available through CarExpert. Get the experts on your side and score a good deal. Browse now.
The unnamed employee’s daily job involves reviewing five to six hours of footage captured by the ‘Tesla Vision’ cameras on the company’s vehicles and ‘labeling’ objects such as road signs, traffic routes and line marks so the system knows what they are.
According to the insider, employee concerns about Autopilot were dismissed, even when it came to basic traffic rules, which could see the human behind the wheel fined if they violated them.
“If we had concerns, they were often brushed aside. There were times when we were told to ignore the ‘No Turn on Red’ or ‘No U-Turn’ signs,” the Tesla employee said. Business insider.
“Those were the kinds of things that made me and my colleagues uncomfortable. In some cases they listened to us, but other times the general response was along the lines of ‘Mind your business and your salary level’.”
Autopilot has drawn criticism from experts who believe the name gives drivers a false sense of understanding about what the system is capable of.
Although Tesla requires drivers to place their hands on the steering wheel to use Autopilot — and locks them out if the system senses they’re not paying attention — many users have found ways to bypass its controls in the past.
This led to a recall of more than two million Teslas in the US at the end of last year, after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) determined that the available failsafes were not sufficient to prevent drivers from abusing Autopilot.
Autopilot has been the subject of more than 40 NHTSA investigations, including at least 23 deaths in the US.
The employee interviewed by Business insiderwho remains at Tesla, said they initially believed working for the company would be “a great opportunity for my career,” although they now see it as dystopian.
They were referring to productivity monitored by Flide Time, an employee monitoring software that tracks keystrokes and detects inactivity.
While Tesla offers a 15-minute break and an additional 30 minutes for lunch, the employee said staff could be penalized for taking too long to “leave the labeling system to review traffic laws or [find] Tesla’s labeling policy,” or if their bathroom visits become delayed over time.
Last year news aagency Reuters reported that a group of Tesla employees were caught sharing private photos and videos from customer’s internal and external cameras, violating the owners’ privacy.
The Tesla employee told me Business insider the company has since implemented better policies to reduce the risk of future leaks.
“Tesla has cracked down on image sharing and what we had access to afterwards Reuters published a story about it. They basically told us, “If you get caught once, that’s your ticket out the door.”
“After that, you could no longer access images outside your assigned team folder, and Tesla placed watermarks on some images so you could easily see where they came from if they were redistributed.
“Sometimes people still pass on images in the office, especially if it’s something unusual, but that doesn’t happen that often.
“There’s something very strange about having this very intimate view of someone’s life. It feels strange to see someone’s daily drive, but it is also an important part of correcting and refining the program.”
MORE: Tesla Employees Caught Remotely Sharing Images of Naked Men and Others Via Customer Car Cameras
