Yes, you read correctly.

During Tesla’s Q1 earnings call on April 17, Lars Moravy, Tesla’s Vice President of Vehicle Engineering, commented onthe recent fatal crash in Texasand proved that Elon Musk’s claims were, well, lies.

Musk had claimed via Twitter that Autopilot wasn’t enabled, and that itwouldn’t work on a street without lane lines, as was the case.

Your research as a private individual is better than professionals@WSJ!

Data logs recovered so far show Autopilot was not enabled & this car did not purchase FSD.

Moreover, standard Autopilot would require lane lines to turn on, which this street did not have.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)April 19, 2021

According toa transcriptof the earnings call, he blamed again the media for deception and characterized the allegations against Autopilot as “completely false.”

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Ironically, Moravy confirmed that at least one of Autopilot’s features – adaptive cruise control – was on before the crash occurred.

Nevertheless, he said that “Autosteer (another feature of Autopilot) did not and could not engage on the road condition that… as it was designed,” partly supporting Musk’s claims.

Similarly, he added that there was likely someone on the driver’s seat, based on the deformed steering wheel and the unplugged seatbelts post-crash.

Yet again,these comments bring more questions than answers.

Do EVs excite your electrons? Do ebikes get your wheels spinning? Do self-driving cars get you all charged up?

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Story byIoanna Lykiardopoulou

Ioanna is a writer at TNW. She covers the full spectrum of the European tech ecosystem, with a particular interest in startups, sustainabili(show all)Ioanna is a writer at TNW. She covers the full spectrum of the European tech ecosystem, with a particular interest in startups, sustainability, green tech, AI, and EU policy. With a background in the humanities, she has a soft spot for social impact-enabling technologies.

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