Tesla cheats in safety tests?

In early September, a Twitter account named green , which regularly posts little-known information about Tesla’s software, “reveals” about the latest changes in Tesla’s software.

The massive Twitter account says that Tesla has added to its software system the names of test sites in Australia and Asia. The list also includes the names of other test sites in Europe, China and South Korea. These are all sensitive locations, where tests often take place that determine the safety of the testing organizations.

From here, green assumes that Tesla’s models have been tuned to perform differently in safety tests in these areas. Most recently, Euro NCAP (a vehicle safety assessment organization backed by the European Union) has investigated these rumors.

Screenshot of a post by a Twitter account named “green”. Photo: Electrek

Euro NCAP CEO Aled Williams said that at the moment there are no clues to prove that Tesla cars actually cheat in tests. It is known that Euro NCAP is a reputable organization, specializing in conducting safety assessments through crash tests that simulate real-life situations, thereby giving rating levels with 5 stars as the maximum level. multi.

In fact, as soon as the green made the rumors, Euro NCAP launched an investigation. CNN has reached out to Tesla but has not received a response, in part perhaps because Tesla does not have a communications unit.

Tesla Model Y is a car that has just received a 5-star safety rating from Euro NCAP. Photo: Euro NCAP

Returning to the incident, green also stated that Tesla uses geofencing (rough translation: Digital border) to activate features in some specific areas, such as the Full Self-Autonomous Driving Assist system. Tesla Driving is disabled in certain areas of Toronto, Canada. However, Euro NCAP also found no evidence that Tesla used geofencing to enable the feature to cheat in the test.

Mr. Aled Williams, CEO of Euro NCAP, said: “It is possible for GPS to be used to identify a vehicle in a test area. This is one of the questions we have with Tesla. , and they completely deny it.”

As for why Tesla’s cars are updated with the location of the test zones, Tesla tells Euro NCAP that it does so to adapt the car to the traffic conditions according to the test area: “The Different regions (eg Europe, Australia…) have different traffic laws and road conditions.”

However, in an interview with CNN, the green pointed out something unusual: Japan, which uses a separate marking and indication system, is not on the list. Neither Euro NCAP nor Tesla CEOs commented on what the green just pointed out.

Euro NCAP CEO said that the investigation with Tesla is still long; The organization is still trying to confirm that Tesla cars can be kept safe under real-world conditions such as when tested. It is known that Tesla Model Y is the latest model to receive the 5-star Euro NCAP safety certification.

Japan has different traffic guidelines but isn’t on Tesla’s list. Photo: Reddit

Until now, there has been no evidence to confirm that Tesla cheated in test tests. In fact, cheating on mock tests is not unheard of.

A typical example is Volkswagen’s diesel emissions scandal, when the company used software to interfere with test results, causing 11 million cars to be sold with results that were not close to reality. This scandal cost the Volkswagen Group $32 billion, and then Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn lost his job.