Tesla Engineers Tell California DMV Elon Musk Exaggerates Self-Driving Timeline
Tesla employees admitted to the California DMV that Elon Musk's predictions for achieving full autonomous driving are merely extrapolations, with Level 5 capabilities remaining a long way off. The company currently operates at Level 2, requiring constant human supervision behind the wheel.
Tesla employees privately admit that Elon Musk exaggerates the timeline for achieving full autonomous driving capabilities. During a March 2021 teleconference with the California DMV, Autopilot software director CJ Moore addresses Musk's claim that Tesla vehicles will drive themselves with greater reliability than humans by the end of the year. Moore explains that Musk is simply extrapolating on the current rate of improvement rather than stating a guaranteed engineering milestone.
The company currently operates at Level 2 autonomy, which requires drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and pay attention to the road at all times. To reach Level 5, where a car drives independently in any condition without human supervision, Tesla needs to improve its driver interaction ratio to one or two million miles per interaction. The automaker cannot confirm if its current rate of improvement will actually achieve this leap by the end of the calendar year.
This discrepancy between Musk's public statements and internal engineering realities highlights an ongoing tension regarding how Tesla markets its technology. The National Transportation Safety Board frequently criticizes Tesla for overselling Autopilot's capabilities to consumers, noting that misleading expectations contribute to dangerous situations. Notably, Tesla's official website traditionally presents a much more cautious view of the software's current abilities than its CEO does during public earnings calls.