Elon Musk Admits to "Excessive Automation" Right After Tesla Autopilot Death

Define “irony.” How about this – Elon Musk admitted to “excessive automation” at Tesla’s Fremont facility right after Tesla’s vehicular autopilot killed someone.

Or maybe it’s just a poor choice of words.

Granted, the driver involved in the fatal Tesla SUV crash was probably at fault – Tesla’s Autopilot is a “driver assistance system,” not fully autonomous, and the driver had his hands off the wheel. But casually blaming “excessive automation” for production difficulties – right or not – seems more than a little tone-deaf when your company is wrestling with the federal government over a tragic automated accident.

I defended Tesla then. This is a billionaire who’s wildly out-of-touch.

Tesla had previously promised 20,000 Model 3 Sedans a month. That number is now closer to 3,300.

This led the eccentric “real-life Iron Man” to tweet “Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated.”

Really?

Tesla has no plans to shift the ratio of humans:robots at its Fremont plant, but you know … the feels and all. Humans are underrated. But probably not behind the wheel.

Again, the brouhaha over the Autopilot fiasco is silly – the driver was probably at fault, and even if he wasn’t, we do ourselves a serious disservice to slow the deployment of automated driving technologies. Self-driving tech will save lives.

But Elon Musk may want to consult with his PR handlers the next time he makes an overarching statement about automation.