Tesla: Musk overruled engineers on removing safety tech, former workers claim

A report by The Washington Post reveals a poor workplace culture at Tesla has led to ‘unreliable’ safety assistance technologies, including a top-down order to remove radar sensors.

According to the US publication – which claims to have interviewed nearly a dozen former Tesla employees and test drivers – CEO Elon Musk overruled engineers who voiced concern that a cost-cutting camera-only AEB system would be susceptible to ‘basic perception errors’ if they were blocked by raindrops or bright sunlight.

The popular electric vehicle company started its ‘Tesla Vision’ transition in 2021 and gradually disabled the radar sensors on already-equipped vehicles at the time – with Musk arguing a camera-only, machine-learning safety assist system is safer than radar as there’s less ‘confusing signals’.

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In October 2022, Tesla also removed the ultrasonic sonar sensors – used for parking distance warnings from an object – in favour of all-round cameras, and is now rolling out Hardware 4.0 with higher-resolution cameras as a running update to the Model S and Model X EVs overseas.

Tesla has been subject to particularly intense scrutiny, to its public release of ‘Full Self-Driving’ (FSD) beta in the US – which was recalled as it may act ‘unsafe’, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

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Data from the American safety regulator also reportedly highlights an increase of ‘phantom braking’ reports after the transition to Tesla Vision, where the vehicle suddenly brakes for no apparent reason while in adaptive cruise control ‘Autopilot’ mode.

Former Tesla employees, who worked with Tesla’s Autopilot safety assistance software, told the Post that a focus on rapid development, cost-cutting measures, lack of a ‘coherent development strategy’, and Musk’s ‘erratic’ leadership style have led to a poor workplace culture.

Sources claim that they are concerned that Autopilot and FSD beta are unsafe for use on public roads and misleading promises tweeted from Musk forced engineers to work harder – while he allegedly pulled ‘dozens’ of engineers to work at Twitter after he acquired the social media platform last year.

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They also allege that monitoring software was installed in their company computers that tracked how they labelled objects recorded from the camera-only system. If the mouse didn’t move for a period of time, a timer started and employees could be reprimanded or even fired for inactivity. (This practice is not unique to Tesla, however, with many employers using computer activity to monitor worker productivity – Ed.)

Tesla Vision relies on machine-learning from public users to improve its reliability – in contrast to long-range radar and lidar sensors which can detect any object without a label.

In contrast, companies such as Waymo adopt strict testing protocols limited to testing within certain areas and have employees at the wheel, while the forthcoming Volvo EX90 and Polestar 3 will implement optional lidar sensors for self-driving tech.

Musk has been famous for promising an imminent fully autonomous ‘robotaxi’ future for years – but it hasn’t materialised and remains a $10,100 option in Australia for the promise of FSD.