Photo: Screenshot from YouTube
Elon Musk isn't the type of individual that will easily admit he was wrong, so interventions such as these are the closest we will ever get to him showing some form of doubt over decisions he has made.
Ever since the Autopilot was released to the wide audience, Musk said it's still in a form of "beta testing," which kind of went under the radar at the moment, but immediately popped right back after what happened on May seven. Now, the Tesla Motors CEO though it would be appropriate to clarify on why he used the word "beta," but if you ask us, it's the "testing" that should have been addressed instead.
During a Twitter conversation (how else?), he said that "[the] point of calling it 'beta' was to emphasize to those who chose to use it that it wasn't perfect." Well, if this is his attempt at making things better, he sure isn't doing a very good job because a responsible car maker should never knowingly release something it's well aware it's flawed. Of course, Volkswagen would disagree with that affirmation, but let's just call the German company the exception that proves the rule.
Beta or not, Tesla made something available to the public, something that even the man running the company admits to not being perfect and that still needed testing. Sure, Tesla ran lab tests, then it used the feature on its own fleets, then in the Early Access Program, and only after all these steps it activated the Autopilot on all of its vehicles built after 2014. But no matter how you put it, it is still testing the feature using its own clients. Its only saving grace is that it is doing so openly.
Also on Twitter, Musk also said that it would take a total of one billion miles of Autopilot data to stop calling it "beta," a number that should be reached in about six months, according to his calculations. Earlier in May, Tesla revealed the speed at which it gathers Autopilot data to be of around one million miles every ten hours from a fleet of about 70,000 vehicles. With a further 50,000 planned to sell over the next six months, that rate should see a steady increase.
Ultimately, this recorded data will serve all carmakers in the attempt of convincing the regulators that autonomous cars are indeed safer than human-driven vehicles. The cost at which this is happening, however, already counts one casualty. Let's just hope these six months pass quickly and uneventfully.
Beta test, according to WhatIs.com:
In software development, a beta test is the second phase of software testing in which a sampling of the intended audience tries the product out.
Beta testing is also sometimes referred to as user acceptance testing (UAT) or end user testing. In this phase of software development, applications are subjected to real world testing by the intended audience for the software. The experiences of the early users are forwarded back to the developers who make final changes before releasing the software commercially.
Ever since the Autopilot was released to the wide audience, Musk said it's still in a form of "beta testing," which kind of went under the radar at the moment, but immediately popped right back after what happened on May seven. Now, the Tesla Motors CEO though it would be appropriate to clarify on why he used the word "beta," but if you ask us, it's the "testing" that should have been addressed instead.
During a Twitter conversation (how else?), he said that "[the] point of calling it 'beta' was to emphasize to those who chose to use it that it wasn't perfect." Well, if this is his attempt at making things better, he sure isn't doing a very good job because a responsible car maker should never knowingly release something it's well aware it's flawed. Of course, Volkswagen would disagree with that affirmation, but let's just call the German company the exception that proves the rule.
Beta or not, Tesla made something available to the public, something that even the man running the company admits to not being perfect and that still needed testing. Sure, Tesla ran lab tests, then it used the feature on its own fleets, then in the Early Access Program, and only after all these steps it activated the Autopilot on all of its vehicles built after 2014. But no matter how you put it, it is still testing the feature using its own clients. Its only saving grace is that it is doing so openly.
Also on Twitter, Musk also said that it would take a total of one billion miles of Autopilot data to stop calling it "beta," a number that should be reached in about six months, according to his calculations. Earlier in May, Tesla revealed the speed at which it gathers Autopilot data to be of around one million miles every ten hours from a fleet of about 70,000 vehicles. With a further 50,000 planned to sell over the next six months, that rate should see a steady increase.
Ultimately, this recorded data will serve all carmakers in the attempt of convincing the regulators that autonomous cars are indeed safer than human-driven vehicles. The cost at which this is happening, however, already counts one casualty. Let's just hope these six months pass quickly and uneventfully.
Beta test, according to WhatIs.com:
In software development, a beta test is the second phase of software testing in which a sampling of the intended audience tries the product out.
Beta testing is also sometimes referred to as user acceptance testing (UAT) or end user testing. In this phase of software development, applications are subjected to real world testing by the intended audience for the software. The experiences of the early users are forwarded back to the developers who make final changes before releasing the software commercially.
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