Mark Zuckerberg had a near miss at a red light in the FSD v12 demo
Tesla driver-assist filming of a Tesla autonomous vehicle: The case for full Self-Driving (Beta)
Musk is in violation ofTesla’s rules about how drivers should behave. Musk is ignoring his own company guidelines which advise drivers to not hold on to the steering yoke while driving, by filming the drive himself and also interacting with commenters during the drive. According to the handbook from the electric vehicle company.
The roughly 45-minute video was meant to demonstrate the prowess of v12 of Tesla’s advanced driver-assist technology, which has yet to be released to customers. And while the vehicle appears to be operating safely for the majority of the trip, it still ends up being a bizarre experience — which is typical of all things Musk.
“So that’s our first intervention because the car should be going straight,” Musk said after taking control of the vehicle. “That’s why we’ve not released this to the public yet.” Musk said that the first time he would remove the label would be in v12 ofFSD.
According to my colleague Andrew, the US government could be about to make a decision on whether or not to order a safety recall of Musk’s cars following a NHTSA investigation into crashes where autopilot cars struck emergency vehicles.
Full Self-Driving (Beta) is a hands-on feature. Keep your hands out of the steering yoke at all times, be aware of the road conditions, and always be prepared to act quickly. Failure to follow these instructions could lead to injury or death.
Elon Musk is a Palo Alto Police Officer: The Effects of Self Driving on Mark Zuckerberg and the World’s Richest Man
The video is also poor quality and often grainy. It flips between filming vertically and horizontally. Musk hopes someone can change the footage to make it more interesting.
At around the 29-minute mark, Musk claims that he will be going to Mark Zuckerberg’s house, which he has previously threatened to do as part of their fight.
Musk Googles Zuckerberg’s address and then displays it prominently on-screen. (Remember, Musk has banned the @ElonJet account that tracks his private jet from X/Twitter, claiming it was a “direct personal safety risk” to him.)
“Had an officer observed the driver with the phone in their hand, they could have issued the driver an infraction ticket for violating California’s handsfree law,” writes Palo Alto PD Captain James Reifschneider.
There’s no question that Musk was in control of the vehicle: he was forced to stop his “Full Self Driving” system from running a red light partway through the livestream, and he reveals that he’s in the drivers seat by turning the camera on himself near the 30-minute mark.
Let me be clear: I’m pretty sure Palo Alto Police have better things to do than chase down the world’s richest man for a $20 fine. (That’s the only punishment for a first offense — you can get a point against your driving record for a second offense, but only if it happens within three years of the first violation.)
But Musk has been known to repeatedly flout the law — see my linkbox — and some are beginning to question his power. The New Yorker published an article titled “Elon Musk’s Shadow Rule” detailing how Starlink satellites became so important to the war in Ukraine that the US government was forced to treat Musk with respect.
Why do police officers always ticket without seeing a phone in a driver’s hand if they see a picture of a vehicle
Reifschneider, the police captain, says that there are practical reasons why the department doesn’t ticket without personally observing a driver — they need to be able to tell a judge what they saw, verify the driver’s identity and driver’s license, and collect a license plate or VIN number for the vehicle to support the citation.
He writes that the officer has to be prepared to testify in court about seeing the phone in the driver’s hand.
