Germany Transport Ministry strongly criticized the Autopilot feature on Tesla Motor´s Model S car, by saying that it represents a "significant traffic hazard", after a series of test that experts in the Federal Highway Institute made to the electric vehicle, in which there were some points that failed to meet expectations.
Although Elon Musk´s car have delivered more vehicles than ever and achieved to log 222 million miles with the autopilot function, this situation represents a significant setback for his plans, since this is a huge critic that question the quality and reliability of this tool, which is practically the soul of the vehicle.
Tesla´s explanation about the Autopilot safety
However, the criticism might be totally unfair, considering that the Ministry tested the Autopilot function as a fully self-driving, which is obviously not the case of Tesla´s car, as reported by Digital Trends.
Apparently, the results showed that "drivers might not be alerted by the Autopilot System, when the car gets in a situation that the computer cannot solve," according to Financial Review.
"Autopilot is a suite of technologies that operate in conjunction with the human driver to make driving safer and less stressful, to denote a support system that operates under the direct supervision of a human pilot. Tesla has always been clear that Autopilot is designed for use on highways or while in slow-moving traffic. Any vehicle can be misused," told Tesla Company through a statement of its own.
Controversy since day one
Regardless if these critics are right or wrong, it is a fact that Tesla´s Autopilot feature has been very controversial since day one considering that many users ended up having accidents, getting to a whole new level when a driver was killed using this technology by a truck in Florida. Nevertheless, Elon Musk has been fighting against any kind of doubt that people have about this function, by redesigning this system to improve safety.
What no one knows is when this feature will be undeniably reliable, instead of an unclear system that some openly disbelieve.
