Tesla (TSLA) held an event at the Warner Bros. backlot titled "We, Robot" on Oct. 10, and in addition to being a product showcase that previewed future products like the driverless Cybercab, Robovan, and the Optimus humanoid robot, it was a celebration of a vision of the future that only Tesla's CEO Elon Musk can dream about.
Though much of the technology showcased remains in development, Tesla customers today have the opportunity to get a 'taste' of this future through optional software called Full Self-Driving, which is available for its cars.
Full Self-Driving, or FSD for short, is a $8,000 driver-assist software that Musk claims is safer than a human driver. Musk has pegged Tesla's robotaxi future on the back of it.
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"I would encourage anyone to understand the system better to simply try it out, let the car drive you around," he said during Tesla's Q2 2024 earnings call in June. "Once people use it, they tend to continue using it. So it's vastly compelling."
Truist Securities Analyst William Stein put Tesla CEO Elon Musk at his word. In separate analyst notes published this summer on July 29 and Aug. 13, he noted that the software could not live up to the CEO's words. In the most recent note in August, he said that after an FSD-assisted drive where the Tesla committed several driving infractions out on the road, his son left the vehicle "terrified."
However, a new report reveals that a special group of Tesla employees were entrusted as Elon's daredevils to help Tesla FSD drive more like a human.
Test Drive: Tesla Full-Self Driving
In a new report by Business Insider, a group of current and former Tesla employees known as Project Rodeo shared details about their jobs as Tesla test drivers who test the absolute limits of the brand's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving software.
According to one test driver, the group was often put in situations that could result in a crash, as the software was designed to prevent such a scenario from happening.
"You're pretty much running on adrenaline the entire eight-hour shift," one former test driver told BI. "There's this feeling that you're on the edge of something going seriously wrong."
The publication interviewed nine current and former Project Rodeo drivers and three Autopilot engineers from California, Florida, and Texas, including some who disclosed their experiences under anonymity.
Project Rodeo itself is comprised of smaller teams tasked with different objectives. One group, called the "golden manual" team, is tasked with driving normally, obeying the rules of the road, and not using driver-assistance features.
Meanwhile, another group called the "critical intervention" team, uses driver-assistance features as intended, letting them take the wheel until the split-second they can prevent a collision.
According to the testers, not immediately taking over allows the software to calculate its decision-making skills. If they see any flaws or have to take the vehicle away from harm's way, it is data that allows engineers to adjust and try again.
"We want the data to know what led the car to that decision," a former Autopilot engineer said. "If you keep intervening too early, we don't really get to the exact moment where we're like, OK, we understand what happened."
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Project Rodeo's 'Rodeo' was Public Streets
Although many crashes involving Tesla's Full Self-Driving and Autopilot have been documented by officials, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the test drivers attest that they have never been in a crash.
Despite never having been in a crash with FSD or Autopilot turned on, the test drivers say that they had to explore the limits of their safety nets to keep their jobs. Often, the test drivers got into risky and downright dangerous behavior on public streets with other drivers, including, but not limited to, speeding, crossing double yellow lines, and running stop signs and red lights.
One former test driver and data analyst, John Bernal, told BI that he was never told to deliberately break the law in order to collect 'valuable' data. Still, it was implied that he had to drive more dangerously than his mind and stomach could handle.
"My training was to wait until the wheels touched the white line before I could slam on the brakes," Bernal said.
One San Francisco-based test driver revealed that actual people were put in harm's way. During their training session near Stanford University, the judgmental eye of their trainer drove them to nearly run over a cyclist with their vehicle for the sake of testing.
"I vividly remember this guy jumping off his bike," the test driver said. "He was terrified. The car lunged at him, and all I could do was stomp on the brakes."
"He told me, 'That was perfect.' That was exactly what they wanted me to do."
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The report from BI comes as the NHTSA has opened a probe into 2.4 million Teslas installed with Full Self-Driving software after the agency was made aware of four reported collisions, including a fatal crash.
According to the agency, it opened the probe after it was made aware of four separate incidents in which Teslas crashed when FSD was engaged during less-than-ideal visual conditions for driving, including sun glare, fog, or airborne dust. In two separate cases known to the agency, a Tesla vehicle with FSD turned on fatally struck a pedestrian, while another crash involved a reported injury.
The NHTSA says it is also looking to see if any other crashes occurred in similar conditions, as well as if the FSD software has the ability to "detect and respond appropriately to reduced roadway visibility conditions," and if Tesla has made any updates to the software that would affect FSD's ability to drive in said conditions.
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