Tesla co-founder calls Autopilot and FSD software “crap” that could jeopardize automaker’s future
Tesla co-founder calls Autopilot and FSD software “crap” that could jeopardize automaker’s future
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Martin Eberhard said he’s not a fan of Elon Musk’s plans for self-driving software at Tesla. Getty Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard said he’s “not a big fan” of autonomous cars. He said self-driving cars were not part of Tesla’s mission when he co-founded the company in 2003. The Tesla co-founder said it was a “mistake to think of a car as a software platform.”
Elon Musk has made autonomous driving a top priority at Tesla, but one of the automaker’s original founders disagrees.
“In my opinion, we need to break the habit of thinking of all these autonomous things as connected to electric vehicles. They are separated,” Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard told Insider. “I would like to see people thinking about building cars that people can drive.”
Eberhard, who Musk ousted as Tesla CEO in 2007, said developing software to make electric cars drive themselves was the least of his worries while at Tesla.
“So keep in mind that this whole autonomous FSD autopilot crap — none of it existed when I was there,” he said. “We were still busy getting the car running and we never thought about it at all. That came later. That requires a much, much bigger budget than we had.”
When Eberhard left Tesla in 2007, the company hadn’t released its first car. The automaker worked on the development of the Tesla Roadster, a tiny sports car based on the Lotus Elise. The Lotus Elise was a two-seater convertible first sold by the British car company Lotus Cars in 1996.
The Tesla co-founder said that while he appreciates “safety-focused systems” like driver assistance features, he’s “not a big fan” of autonomous driving. He said Musk seems preoccupied with autonomous cars and identified this as one of his biggest concerns for Tesla under Musk’s leadership.
Musk has been promising for years that Tesla will put fully autonomous cars on the road. Last year, the billionaire said the automaker’s self-driving software made the difference between Tesla, which is worth a lot of money, and Tesla, which is worth next to nothing.
Today, Tesla is known for its over-the-air software updates said Musk that the company “is as much a software company as it is a hardware company”. But Eberhard does not agree with this approach.
“I think it’s a mistake to think of a car as a software platform, you know, like an iPhone or something. It’s not the same,” said Eberhard.
“I have an iPhone and every time I get a software update there are bugs in it,” he added. “For example, these bugs cause my news feed app to crash from time to time. It’s not a big deal because it’s only annoying on the iPhone. But a bug like that shows up in the software that controls my brakes or the steering, for example, and it can kill you.”
All current Tesla models are equipped with the automaker’s driver assistance program Autopilot. Tesla owners can also purchase the company’s Full Self-Driving Beta feature for $15,000 or through a $199 monthly subscription. The beta feature allows the vehicle to automatically change lanes, enter and exit freeways, recognize stop signs and traffic lights, and park. Both programs still require a licensed driver to monitor the system at all times, and Tesla’s AI system collects driver data to improve the system as drivers use it. By December, over 285,000 people had purchased the feature.
In recent years, Tesla has come under increased scrutiny from regulators over the company’s self-driving software and how the company markets its services. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating autopilot and its possible connection to multiple accidents.
Eberhard and Musk have had disagreements in the past. Eberhard filed a defamation lawsuit against Musk in 2009 after Musk began calling himself the Tesla founder and speaking negatively about Eberhard. The lawsuit was settled the same year. Since then, the billionaire has been criticizing Eberhard on the Internet.
Musk did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Emails from insiders to Tesla’s press office asking for comment went unanswered.
Read the full insider interview with Martin Eberhard.
Do you work for Tesla or do you have an insight? Reach out to the reporter via email at gkay@insider.com, secure messaging app Signal at 248-894-6012, or Twitter DM @graceihle. Contact us from a personal device.
