Enlarge / Tesla with full autonomous driving enabled moments before hitting a bollard in San Jose.
Former Tesla employee Jon Bernal says he was fired for posting YouTube videos of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta. He created the video for about a year. Bernal says Tesla also cut off his access to the FSD beta in his 2021 Tesla Model 3.
The shooting and the beta shutdown came shortly after Bernal posted a video on Feb. 4 of a minor crash in which his Tesla car crashed into a pole that appears to separate a car lane from a bike lane in San Jose. In a follow-up video from February 7, which provides a frame-by-frame analysis of the collision, Bernal said that “no matter how minor this crash was, this is the first beta FSD collision captured on camera that is irrefutable.”
“I was fired from Tesla in February because my YouTube was cited as the reason, despite my uploads being for my personal vehicle, outside of business hours or property, with software I paid for.” Bernal said in the latest video that was posted. posted yesterday on his AI Addict channel. Bernal showed a notification he received saying that his access to the Full Self-Driving beta had been disabled “based on your recent driving data.” But that explanation didn’t make sense because “on the morning of my layoff, I didn’t have a single misuse of my car,” he said.
Bernal said his job at Tesla was to help develop the FSD and test the software. In his new video, Tesla asked to re-enable the beta on his personal car, but explained that he continues to test the full autonomous driving beta on the new car. “This channel is meant to educate the public… It is important for me to find important security bugs and I still want to help. Luckily, this is Silicon Valley where there are many betas, so I’m up to date today. new Tesla,” he said.
Independent collision (analysis).
Notice of dismissal “no reason given”
We have contacted Tesla regarding Bernal’s firing and will update this article if we receive a response. According to CNBC, Bernal joined Tesla “as a data annotation specialist in August 2020” and “was fired in the second week of February this year after moving to the role of advanced driver assistance systems test operator, according to records.” he shared with CNBC.”
Bernal’s “letter letter” did not state the reason for his termination, but said that “before he was fired, he was verbally told by managers that he had ‘violated Tesla policy’ and that his YouTube channel was ‘conflicting’. interests,” according to CNBC. wrote. “Bernal said he’s always been outspoken about his YouTube channel, both with his Tesla managers and the public… Bernal said he’s never seen a policy forbidding him from creating automotive tech reviews in his spare time using own property.” Advertising
CNBC said it received a copy of Tesla’s internal social media policy and that it “contains no direct reference to public criticism of the company’s products. media activity.
Bernal claimed he “never revealed anything in his videos that Tesla didn’t release to the public,” saying that “the FSD betas I showed were end-user products,” according to CNBC.
First accident in a year of testing
In a video analyzing the crash, Bernal said he had been testing the software for over a year and that it was his “first incident”. He also noted that as an employee, he spent a year “branding this software for Tesla.”
When the crash happened, Bernal let the full self-driving features drive the car, but said he “activated the brakes as hard as he could” when it became clear the car was going off course. Tesla bent the pole to the ground. “Fortunately, it was just plastic,” he said.
“Some may say that I should have reacted earlier, which I should have done. However, in my year of testing, the FSD is usually really good at detecting objects at the last minute and slowing down to avoid them,” he said. Although it was not a major accident, Bernal said “there are several other instances in the same video where the FSD system tries to head straight for other bollards after having already hit one. This was not an isolated incident.”
“Close calls, pedestrians, bicycles!”
Bernal’s AI Addict channel has nearly 8,800 subscribers, and the two videos of the crash have amassed around 230,000 views combined. Most of his videos over the past year are about Tesla full self-driving. In addition to last month’s crash videos, Bernal posted one in March 2021 titled “Close Calls, Pedestrians, Bicycles!”
Bernal told CNBC that after the video first aired in March 2021, “a manager on my Autopilot team tried to dissuade me from posting any negative or critical content related to the FSD beta in the future. They had a videoconference with me, but they didn’t add anything. writing.”