This Week in Tesla: Tesla Releases More Autopilot Data, Tesla App to Gain Security

Tesla Releases More Autopilot Data -

This week, Tesla continued the tradition of releasing data gathered from its fleet of cars. Each Tesla on the road, while using Autopilot, is constantly gathering data that is being shared nonstop with the Autopilot team at Tesla. Tesla’s goal by gathering the data, is primarily to help them improve the driver assist system, and work toward the goal of full autonomy. By gathering this data, Tesla also hopes to show lawmakers that cars being driven by computer systems can be more reliable and safer than those being driven by humans.

At this point in time, Tesla has amassed a surprising three billion miles of Autopilot data gathered from drivers around the world who use the system. In addition, the more advanced Autopilot system, Navigate on Autopilot, is accountable for one billion of the three billion total miles driven. In addition, there have been over 200,000 fully automated lane changes made by the cars, where the cars must determine whether or not it is safe or necessary in a given situation to change lanes. Another figure the public was updated on is the number of Smart Summon sessions by Tesla owners. Smart Summon is a system designed for people to summon their cars from one side of a parking lot to another. Some have ruled the system as untrustworthy and potentially dangerous, which manifests itself in the fact that 500,000 of the 1.2 million smart summon uses were within the first two weeks of the feature being widely available. Since then, there have been six months passed with only 600,000 sessions of Smart Summon being used. This indicates that the feature is not one used on a daily or near daily basis, such as the standard Autopilot system.

Tesla App to Gain Security -

It has long been a fear of Tesla owners that someone could simply drive off in their car, with only their email and password to their Tesla account. This would be possible via the Tesla app, where with only your email and password, one can log in to the app to unlock your car and drive off. This is especially concerning considering that several people use the same email and password for different websites, and many websites have been compromised. (You can visit this website, and enter your email address to see if your data and passwords have been compromised) Considering the fact that over 9.5 billion accounts and passwords for websites have been compromised, the security on the Tesla app begins to look scarce.

The best way that companies can protect their users from theft like this is to use two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication (2FA) is a system where to log in somewhere, one has to enter a password, then a code that is texted or emailed to them. This process is to ensure that it is in fact the owner of the account who is logging in, and not someone with malicious intent. Tesla owners have been wanting Tesla to incorporate 2FA into all Tesla accounts for quite a while now, and it seems that it is finally going to happen. In a recent tweet by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, he stated that a 2FA system will soon be implemented in Tesla.

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