One of the greatest tricks technology companies ever played was convincing their human guinea pig users that they were a privileged group called beta testers.
From novel email software to alternative versions of Twitter to voice-enabled listening devices, such trials are cheap and easy to make available to thousands or millions of customers. It’s a great way to see how a new version stacks up against the old.
Other than some annoying glitches or unfamiliar icons, software beta testing is generally innocuous. The stakes for most apps are far below life and death.
But there’s nothing innocuous about the beta tests being run by Elon Musk, the billionaire C.E.O. of Tesla. He has turned American streets into a public laboratory for the company’s supposed self-driving car technology.
Tesla says that its inaccurately named full self-driving and autopilot modes are meant to assist drivers and make Teslas safer — but autopilot has been at the center of a series of erratic driving incidents.
In public, Mr. Musk sometimes overhypes these technologies on social media and in other statements. Yet Tesla engineers have privately admitted to California regulators that they are not quite ready for prime time.
Tesla’s autopilot mode uses software, sensors and cameras to detect lanes, objects and other vehicles on the road and can steer, brake, accelerate and even change lanes with minimal input from the driver. Full self-driving beta version 9 — available today to just a few thousand Tesla...
Read Full Story: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/opinion/self-driving-cars-tesla-elon-musk.html
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