Mobileye chairman Amnon Shashua recently said that his company broke ties with Tesla because the latter was pushing the envelope with their Autopilot driver-assistance system.
Shashua, who is also chief technology officer for the Israel-based company, said that Autopilot “is not designed to cover all possible crash situations in a safe manner.”
“No matter how you spin it, [Autopilot] is not designed for that. It is a driver assistance system and not a driverless system,” he stated in an interview.
As reported by Autonews, Tesla fired back stating that they never described Autopilot to be a fully autonomous technology.
“Since the release of Autopilot, we’ve continuously educated customers on the use of the features, reminding them that they’re responsible to keep their hands on the wheel and remain alert and present when using Autopilot,” explained a spokeswoman. “Drivers must be prepared to take control at all times.”
Back in July, after Mobileye first announced their split from Tesla, the automaker argued that it was actually Mobileye that couldn’t keep pace with their product change.
“Our parting ways was inevitable,” was a direct quote from Elon Musk himself during a press conference in late July.
Shashua however couldn’t get past the so-called mixed messages that Tesla was sending out regarding their Autopilot system, namely boasting about its capabilities while cautioning drivers to keep their hands on the wheel.
“Long term this is going to hurt the interests of the company and hurt the interests of an entire industry, if a company of our reputation will continue to be associated with this type of pushing the envelope in terms of safety,” added the Mobileye chairman & CTO.
Mobileye currently provides collision detection systems to 27 different automakers, representing around 70% of the current market.
