An engineer from Tesla has asserted that the car manufacturer did not name its suite of automated driving functions as ‘Full Self-Driving’ in an intentional move to make customers believe the system is more advanced than it currently is.
Tesla’s Autopilot system is the focus of an ongoing trial in the United States, triggered by a lawsuit that claims the driver of a Model 3 was killed after the system caused him to veer off a highway and hit a tree. The crash happened in 2019 and killed owner Micah Lee while leaving his two passengers with serious injuries.
The lawsuit claims that Tesla has sold vehicles knowing that both its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems are defective. Auto News notes that Lee paid $6,000 for the Full Self-Driving package in 2019 and at the time, the system was able to keep a car within its lane while maintaining distance to a vehicle in front.
Tesla engineer Eloy Rubio Blanco took the stand last week. He denied assertions from Lee’s attorney that the name Full Self-Driving was chosen to fool the public.
“Do I think our drivers think that our vehicles are autonomous? No,” Blanco told the court.
Read: U.S. Opens Special Investigation Over Autopilot Use In Fatal Tesla Crash
Tesla had asked for Blanco’s testimony to be kept private due to concerns about trade secrets. While the judge denied this request, he did order for the court’s live audio feed to be cut off during Blanco’s statements.
The Tesla engineer acknowledged that Tesla vehicles sold in 2019 might have “latent defects” because of the complexity of their software. He also added that the driver-assistance system “has a series of limitations” and may detect an object incorrectly. Blanco added that the automatic braking functionality could also be insufficient to avoid collisions.
