Right-wing egomaniac and our would-be overlord Elon Musk has a big problem at Tesla. It's not only that the company's stock value is falling, and sales are dropping. His company is being sued in multiple venues for the car's Autopilot failures, which have resulted in numerous serious crashes. From the Washington Post:
"At least eight lawsuits headed to trial in the coming year — including two that haven’t been previously reported — involve fatal or otherwise serious crashes that occurred while the driver was allegedly relying on Autopilot. The complaints argue that Tesla exaggerated the capabilities of the feature, which controls steering, speed and other actions typically left to the driver. As a result, the lawsuits claim, the company created a false sense of complacency that led the drivers to tragedy.
Evidence emerging in the cases — including dash-cam video obtained by The Washington Post — offers sometimes-shocking details: In Phoenix, a woman allegedly relying on Autopilot plows into a disabled car and is then struck and killed by another vehicle after exiting her Tesla. In Tennessee, an intoxicated man allegedly using Autopilot drives down the wrong side of the road for several minutes before barreling into an oncoming car, killing the 20-year-old inside." (our emphasis)
Meanwhile, Musk is arrogantly predicting AI will be the savior of his company, as he is staking much of his electric vehicle efforts on what he calls the "robotaxi":
"To allay investors’ concerns, Musk has made lofty promises about launching a fully autonomous 'robotaxi' in August. Soon, he said during Tuesday’s earnings call, driving a car will be like riding an elevator: you get on and get out at your destination.
'We should be thought of as an AI or robotics company,' Musk told investors. 'If somebody doesn’t believe Tesla is going to solve autonomy, I think they should not be an investor in the company. But we will.'”
Musk's "lofty promises" are causing too many to put their lives in his greedy and indifferent hands, while he works on solving autonomy. It's hard to comprehend that this erratic mogul's SpaceX company also has a virtual lock on NASA's space flight program, and its subsidiary Starlink satellite system which Ukraine relies on. It's like giving a James Bond villain the the nuclear codebook, which may be his next goal.
