WaPo: How Elon Musk knocked Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ off course

This article tells us the Top Engineer for Autopilot is now working at Twitter on Musk problems. Other Engineers from Tesla’s Autonomous Division are also working at Twitter - not Tesla.

How Elon Musk knocked Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ off course

https://archive.ph/l7VtO

SAN FRANCISCO — Long before he became “Chief Twit” of Twitter, Elon Musk had a different obsession: making Teslas drive themselves. The technology was expensive and, two years ago when the supply chain was falling apart, Musk became determined to bring down the cost.

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He zeroed in on a target: the car radar sensors, which are designed to detect hazards at long ranges and prevent the vehicles from barreling into other cars in traffic. The sleek bodies of the cars already bristled with eight cameras designed to view the road and spot hazards in each direction. That, Musk argued, should be enough.

Some Tesla engineers were aghast, said former employees with knowledge of his reaction, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. They contacted a trusted former executive for advice on how to talk Musk out of it, in previously unreported pushback. Without radar, Teslas would be susceptible to basic perception errors if the cameras were obscured by raindrops or even bright sunlight, problems that could lead to crashes.

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