When the white-hat hacker GreenTheOnly revealed Tesla’s Autopilot code could recognize tests, Tesla investors were more concerned about giving a reasonable explanation than the EV maker. In fact, Tesla has publicly ignored what the hacker revealed. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) didn’t: it is now looking into the situation.
Curiously, the American safety regulator was not in the code. GreenTheOnly found four traffic safety entities in it: ANCAP, Euro NCAP, I VISTA (the Chinese testing grounds), and Korean NCAP. We tried to contact ANCAP and Euro NCAP, but neither replied. The NHTSA concern may have to do with the fact that it is the entity in charge of the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) in the U.S.
Repairer Driven News asked the safety regulator about the hacker findings and heard back that NHTSA was “aware of the reports,” “currently discussing the topic with the manufacturer and reviewing all pertinent information.” The media outlet also contacted Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), but their spokesperson said the organization did not have “enough concrete information to offer a response.” As I discussed in a recent editorial, it should.
GreenTheOnly discovered that Tesla vehicles tested by entities such as Euro NCAP had a code that recognized advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) testings. One of the most concerning possible reasons is that the Autopilot code uses that information to change the response the vehicle would present to fare better in the evaluations.
There are more elements that put under suspicion the safety evaluations performed with Tesla vehicles. According to GreenTheOnly, he could “confidently say they are running non-production code.” He added that “100% of observed crash/ADAS tested cars in EU/US have one-off builds on specially provisioned computers.”
Euro NCAP has a testing procedure that tries to make sure the evaluated vehicles are not modified in any way. In other words, they are exactly like those regular customers could buy when the tests were performed. Considering what GreenTheOnly discovered, that alone invalidates the results obtained in the tests. We’re still waiting for Euro NCAP to answer our questions about that.
Repairer Driven News asked the safety regulator about the hacker findings and heard back that NHTSA was “aware of the reports,” “currently discussing the topic with the manufacturer and reviewing all pertinent information.” The media outlet also contacted Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), but their spokesperson said the organization did not have “enough concrete information to offer a response.” As I discussed in a recent editorial, it should.
GreenTheOnly discovered that Tesla vehicles tested by entities such as Euro NCAP had a code that recognized advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) testings. One of the most concerning possible reasons is that the Autopilot code uses that information to change the response the vehicle would present to fare better in the evaluations.
There are more elements that put under suspicion the safety evaluations performed with Tesla vehicles. According to GreenTheOnly, he could “confidently say they are running non-production code.” He added that “100% of observed crash/ADAS tested cars in EU/US have one-off builds on specially provisioned computers.”
Euro NCAP has a testing procedure that tries to make sure the evaluated vehicles are not modified in any way. In other words, they are exactly like those regular customers could buy when the tests were performed. Considering what GreenTheOnly discovered, that alone invalidates the results obtained in the tests. We’re still waiting for Euro NCAP to answer our questions about that.