The essay for this-saying is based on a conversation with A Tesla Employees who speak anonymously to protect their privacy. Business Insider verified their identity and employment and corroborated their claims during our reporting Tesla’s Autopilot features. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I started in 2022 at Tesla’s factory in Buffalo, New York. I had no automotive or manufacturing experience before I started working on the Autopilot project.
My job is to help train Tesla’s vehicles to drive themselves. Tesla has 9 different cameras that collect data that the Autopilot team goes through to teach the full self-driving and Autopilot software how to drive like a human.
I spend hours every day on videos taken from customer cars and Tesla’s in-house test drivers. We label every little thing – from making sure a car doesn’t try to drive onto the shoulder of the road to telling us how to react when a lane is closed due to construction or when there’s a four-way stop sign. .
Within the program are many different small projects that all combine to create a more complete self-driving and autopilot experience. We work on hyper-focused projects that can span weeks or months. For example, you could spend months labeling road lines or teaching the vehicle how to respond to various weather conditions, such as how to identify snow banks and how to operate when there are snow-covered tracks.
I’ve seen clips from all over the world — and some accidents, too
Sometimes Tesla’s cameras will capture near misses. It can be hard to see, but as soon as we run across one, we flag it to a supervisor.
When I first started at Tesla, it was Common for people to share clips Around the office, they usually only see strange things. But, one activist took it too far. He shared a clip of a little boy who was hit by a Tesla while riding his bike. I thought it was sad.
Tesla cracked down on image sharing and then what we could access Reuters Published a story on it. They essentially told us “If you get caught once, that’s your ticket out the door.”
After that, you Could not access images Now out of your assigned team folder, and Tesla put watermarks on some images so you can easily tell where it came from, if it’s redistributed. Sometimes people still pass images around the office, especially if it’s something out of the ordinary, but it doesn’t happen often.
There is something very strange about having this very intimate view into someone’s life. It may seem strange to watch someone’s daily drive, but it is also an important part of improving and refining the program.
At the same time, we are under our own microscope
Every time we click a key on a computer, Tesla knows what we are doing. is Cameras are basically everywhere We work so the bathroom is the only place you can really have any privacy.
We review about five and a half to six hours of footage every day. It can be very difficult to concentrate. You can get into this kind of fog when you’re watching clip after clip and it can be hard to keep yourself sane.
Tesla gives us a 15-minute break and a 30-minute lunch break, but you have to time it in full thanks to Tesla’s employee monitoring software: Flight Time. that Tracks keystrokes And how long we’re working on the image, that can make it difficult. You may need to use external resources to label some clips correctly. So you have to go out of the labeling system to review traffic laws or Tesla’s labeling policies, but whenever you’re not clicking around in the software program, it tracks you as if you’re not working and that’s basically an alarm for your superiors.
If you don’t hit flight time — even if you’re five minutes off — the next day, you’ll end up in a disciplinary meeting with the team lead and get a point against your record. If you get three points in a six-month period, you can be fired.
Missing flight time has put me in trouble. They bring you into a separate office and ask: “Why didn’t you make any changes to the software program for 15 minutes?” You can basically be fired for spending too long in the bathroom.
There is definitely a feeling that we are just worker ants.
When we had concerns they were often brushed aside. Some times we were Told to ignore “No Turn on Red” or “No U-Turn” signs. Those were the things that made me and my coworkers feel uncomfortable. In some cases, they would listen to us, but other times the general response was along the lines of “mind your business and your pay scale”.
My experience at Tesla has been different than I imagined when I started. I thought it would be a great opportunity for my career, but now I see it as this dystopian company.
A Tesla spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Do you work for Tesla or have a tip? Reach the reporter via non-working email and device at [email protected] or 248-894-6012.
Post I work on Tesla’s Autopilot team. I watch and constantly monitor hours of customer driving videos every day. appeared first Business Insider.