Tesla’s advanced driver assistance systems have been a lightning rod for criticism against semi-autonomous features, and the latest critic is a big deal in Silicon Valley. Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, had some harsh words for the brand and its technology.
Speaking on CNN This Morning, Wozniak was asked whether or not he ever talks to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, by host Kaitlan Collins. He responded that he had never actually met him before, but did have some admiration for Tesla’s popularization of electric vehicles.
Wozniak was less impressed by Musk’s claims about what the company’s ADAS systems would be able to achieve. Admitting that he had been a believer in the company early on, he has lost faith in its ability to deliver on some of its bigger claims.
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“I believed the things he said! That a car would drive itself across the country by the end of 2016,” admitted Wozniak. “Oh, I had to upgrade to that model. You know, $50,000, and then it wouldn’t do anything. I could tell it would never make it across the country.”
Despite the Tesla questions, Wozniak was actually on the CNN This Morning talking about artificial intelligence. The interview came in the wake of Geoffrey Hinton, referred to by many as the “Godfather of AI” leaving his job at Google to speak about the risks of the technology. That should help to contextualize Wozniak’s most notable claim of the interview.
“I actually believed [Musk’s claims], and it’s not even close to reality,” he said. “And boy, if you want a study of AI gone wrong and taking a lot of claims, and trying to kill you every chance it can, get a Tesla.“
Although the comments garnered audible guffaws from the studio, it is worth noting that Tesla’s ADAS systems are under investigation from federal regulators. The system has been tied to numerous fatal crashes, and Tesla is the automaker whose vehicles are involved in the most incidents relating to Level 2 autonomous systems.
Whether that’s as a result of a fundamental flaw in their design, or simply as a result of customers overestimating the effectiveness of the systems because of comments made by the company’s CEO, it’s clear that the reputation of Autopilot is checkered, even among the tech set.