Some drivers chose to try to cheat Tesla’s existing system, leading to reports of cars on the road with no one sitting in the driver’s seat
Tesla’s self-driving system has been severely criticized this year. There have been many fatal accidents when using this system, whether in typical use or when the user deliberately ignored the requirement to maintain control of the car. Others are proud that they can surpass Tesla’s monitoring system, and they can drive the car from the back seat with the autopilot enabled. This situation makes many people angry with the car manufacturer, because the car manufacturer has not taken more measures to ensure the driver’s attention.
After Elon Musk stated that Tesla refused to use eye tracking as a driver attention measure because it was “ineffective” for several years, new Tesla owners were given vehicles with this feature enabled. According to the instructions in the 2021.4.15.11 update, the cockpit camera installed over the rear view mirror “will detect and alert the driver of inattention when the autopilot is enabled.” This brings Tesla in line with other manufacturers that include cockpit cameras to monitor attention when using aids, rather than relying solely on steering wheel torque.
Some drivers chose to try to cheat Tesla’s existing system, leading to reports of cars on the road with no one sitting in the driver’s seat. You have not yet replaced the steering wheel torque used for monitoring, but we will see if the situation changes.
Tesla hacker Green the only monitored Tesla’s progress in developing software to monitor controllers and demonstrated in some demo videos what the first version of the system can identify. Other videos posted on social media in recent weeks show that drivers are beginning to deliver modified Model S and Model X with “yoke” steering wheels and other changes, so more adjustments may be discovered soon.
The company is also trying to alleviate concerns about privacy. The software states that “unless data sharing is enabled, the system cannot save or transmit information.” However, it turns out that the recovered Tesla vehicles have leaked personal data and videos in the past. Given such examples, customers are forgiven for not trusting the system.
Other automakers have been using these systems for some time; as long as the eye-tracking system detects that the user is paying attention to the road, General Motors’ Super Cruise can in particular enable hands-free driving. Tesla itself decided to ignore the driver tracking system in 2018, even though some of their own engineers have such a desire. This decision marks a 180-degree change in the company’s position and has made some customers feel uneasy.