Tesla’s massive Autopilot recall reflects the real-world risk of Elon Musk’s hyperbolic promises

Analysis by Allison Morrow, CNN

New York (CNN) — Elon Musk’s pitch to the world is, in a nutshell: I make the best stuff, so I can say whatever I want.

“Whether you hate me, like me, or are indifferent, do you want the best car or not the best car?” he said at the New York Times DealBook Summit last month.

The problem is, Musk’s incessant bluster isn’t limited to his social media presence or his (very rare) interviews with media. His grand promises also make it into the official marketing materials that his crown jewel, Tesla, uses to sell cars and keep its stock (the source of most of Musk’s wealth) in the stratosphere.

That’s how Tesla owners wound up with a feature called “Autopilot” that is now the subject of a two-year investigation by US safety regulators that led the company to recall nearly all 2 million of its cars on US roads this week.

Despite its name, the Autopilot feature, which now comes standard on new Teslas, does not let the car drive itself. Another more-advanced feature called “Full Self Driving,” or FSD, costs an additional $12,000 and is similarly not intended to let the person behind the wheel take their eyes off the road or their hands off the wheel.

But Tesla has repeatedly marketed its Autopilot system as one that allows cars to drive themselves. In a 2016 video that remains on Tesla’s website, one of the company’s first Autopilot demonstrations, begins: “The person in the driver’s seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which investigated nearly 1,000 crashes involving Teslas, said the Autopilot system can give drivers a false sense of security that the car can drive itself in certain situations and be easily misused.

Tesla, which dissolved its public relations department in 2020, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Neither Tesla nor Musk have issued statements on the recall.

These driver-assist systems are the backbone of the business model that has made Tesla the most valuable automaker on the planet despite it having just a fraction of its competitors’ sales.

Investors are gorging on the hype. Tesla’s stock briefly dipped on Wednesday, but remains up more than 110% for the year. Over the last five years, the stock has climbed more than 840%, vaulting Musk to the status of world’s wealthiest person.

As for the Full Self-Driving system’s well documented issues with swerving unexpectedly, charging through stop signs and plowing into emergency vehicles? The Tesla bulls aren’t too worried. Tesla’s stock rose along with the rest of the market Wednesday.

“Tesla’s FSD capabilities continue seeing increased traction in the market despite several questions surrounding the safety of this software,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note to clients Wednesday. “We view this as another incremental value driver in the TSLA growth story over the coming years.”

And with that kind of positive reinforcement, Musk’s hype only builds on itself. In October, Musk razzle-dazzled investors with talk of how Tesla’s investment in artificial intelligence will be a game-changer for its all-important self-driving systems.

In the long term, he said, AI “has the potential to make Tesla the most valuable company in the world by far…If you have fully autonomous cars at scale and fully autonomous humanoid robots that are truly useful, it’s not clear what the limit is.”

But Tesla isn’t there yet. Far from it, despite its features’ automated-sounding branding.

Official Tesla manuals state unequivocally that human drivers need to stay alert while using these features, though that hasn’t stopped people from trying. (The auto news site MotorTrend keeps a running list of Autopilot and Full Self Driving crashes.)

The company has faced multiple lawsuits related to the Autopilot system.

Last month, a Florida judge ruled that there was “reasonable evidence” to find that Musk and other executives touted Autopilot despite knowing it was defective, according to Reuters. That suit stems from a 2019 crash in which a Tesla driver engaged the Autopilot system seconds before his car drove under the trailer of a semi-truck, killing the Tesla driver.

“Tesla drivers have logged more than one billion miles with Autopilot engaged, and our data shows that, when used properly by an attentive driver who is prepared to take control at all times, drivers supported by Autopilot are safer than those operating without assistance,” the company said in a 2019 statement about the lawsuit.

Tesla was found not liable in two California cases in California this year that were focused on alleged defects in the product.

Of course, it’s a CEO’s job to tout their company’s products and create value for shareholders. But Muskian hyperbole about Tesla’s self-driving capabilities is especially risky because of the nature of the product: Driver-assist technology, while increasingly common in vehicles beyond Teslas, remains largely unregulated.

So it’s an honor system: Keep your hands on the wheel, of course. Don’t doze off, of course. Don’t text, of course. But wink-wink, this thing really can drive itself.

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