Tesla and TikTok are addressing the dangerous trend going around the short-form video-sharing app. After all, Tesla has kept on reminding its car owners that the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving feature on their cars have limitations.
TikTok, Tesla Autopilot Trend
The app has been seeing quite a number of Tesla owners jump on the trend of taking their electric vehicles out on a spin using the Autopilot or Full Self-Driving mode, albeit without someone in the driver's seat.
The Autopilot feature on the Tesla is a driver assistance system. It helps match the vehicle's speed to the traffic around it, keeping the vehicle in its lane, and automatic steering, ScreenRant explained. The Full Self-Driving feature, on the other hand, is intended to provide fully autonomous driving--no actions needed by the driver sitting on the driver's seat.
It is worth noting that Tesla explicitly mentioned on their website that limitations still exist for their two systems and that Tesla owners need to be attentive on the road, behind the wheel.
"Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Capability are intended for use with a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment. While these features are designed to become more capable over time, the currently enabled features do not make the vehicle autonomous," the website explained.
Tesla's features offering a less involved driver in the driving process have already gotten the EV company under scrutiny before. Car accidents have already been reported and some have been fatal.
TikTok star criminally uses Tesla Autopilot and posts video evidence https://t.co/vSbLRhDX1p by @fredericlambert
— Electrek.co (@ElectrekCo) January 20, 2021
Now, TikTok has been tagging videos of the Tesla Autopilot trend with a warning that the actions in the video could cause serious injury. The videos have also made their way to other social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
One individual, ScreenRant reported, was arrested by the police for riding the back of a moving tesla. He was released on bail and proceeded to video himself doing it again.
Despite the tags and warnings, some users believe it is not enough. Under TikTok's community guidelines, under the section regarding "dangerous acts," the videos should be taken down.
Tesla Camera Cabin to Monitor Drivers
In response to the growing dangerous trend on the internet, Tesla has reportedly rolled out an over-the-air software update that activated the driver-facing in-car camera in its Model 3 and Model Y cars, ScreenRant said. This is to monitor the drivers' attentiveness while the Autopilot system is in use.
The in-car camera located above the rearview mirror is turned off by default. Drivers can choose to activate it to later evaluate any accidents caught on camera, a car crash or an automatic emergency braking incident.
Tesla owners on Twitter posted about the upgrade, with the note saying: "The cabin camera above your rearview mirror can now detect and alert driver inattentiveness while Autopilot is engaged. Camera data does not leave the car itself, which means the system cannot save or transmit information unless data sharing is enabled."
Well well well. Look what we have here. pic.twitter.com/BakZlRfDFz
— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) May 27, 2021
Beside's Tesla's explicit mentions of the limitations of their two systems and only truly achieving fully autonomous driving in the future, it seems that some users still have too much confidence in the car's computer.
Andrew Kun, the University of New Hampshire Human-Computer Expert told TechTimes that people tend to disregard Tesla's description of these two autonomous features, which makes them overtrust these EV capabilities.
