Tesla May Be Modeling Its Software Based on How One Guy Drives: Elon Musk
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software is an impressive piece of machine learning that grants the company’s fleet of EVs self-driving capabilities.
However, a new report by Business Insider says that this software, which is analyzed by a small army of human “data annotators,” prioritizes the driving experience of its CEO, Elon Musk, and YouTube influencers who test the FSD Beta.
This could explain some of the performance discrepancies reported by Tesla owners and auto journalists when compared to videos posted and shared by Tesla and Musk.
EV automaker Tesla and its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software have been navigating a rocky road the past couple of years. Investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board have pointed fingers at the company’s automation systems for fatal crashes, and this past May, Tesla failed to ward off a lawsuit centered around the company’s misleading claims about its cars' self-driving capability. Now a new report from Business Insider suggests that Tesla prioritizes the self-driving data of CEO Elon Musk, along with other “VIP Drivers” (i.e. YouTube influencers), to train its FSD software.
Although this self-driving software is mostly a product of machine learning as the FSD analyzes human driving behaviors to improve its automated capabilities, the model still requires flesh-and-blood human data annotators to identify certain driving quirks, whether that’s deciding when to execute a particular turn, flip on a blinker, or avoid a construction cone.
Speaking with over a dozen current and former Tesla employees, Business Insider reports that data derived from Musk’s own driving experiences, along with other “VIP drivers” mainly on YouTube, was prioritized when training the FSD. The company took note of YouTubers who’d consistently test FSD Beta software and prioritized their driving experience, as Business Insider writes:
These videos do not go unnoticed by Tesla staff. In fact, the company created a system to prioritize data from drivers most likely to share their experience online, three current and former workers with direct knowledge of the issue told BI. These drivers are internally referred to as “VIP” users and their data is at times put in VIP queues, according to the workers.
Although data is data, FSD software analyzing these specific routes trains the EV autopilot program to deliver a great driving experience for those living primarily in southern California (where Musk and YouTube influencers most often drive) while delivering a much different experience for those living in different parts of the world. Fred Lambert, writing for the EV-focused website Electrek, said that for years he’s witnessed discrepancies in the FSD experience between people “driving” in California compared to those living in much different locations, such as New England or Quebec.
While some Tesla workers said that these VIP drivers are helpful to focus on because they tend to push the system to their limits, prioritizing data in line with the kind of driving seen in videos that Tesla and Musk share on X also creates the illusion of a service that’s not quite as accessible for the average consumer.
Tesla’s FSD software is still undoubtedly an industry leader when it comes to self-driving capabilities on the road, but overselling a service seems to have landed the company in a litany of legal trouble in the past. It may not have learned its lesson. Driving down that same road—hands free or not—seems like an unnecessary flirtation with a familiar disaster.
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