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In a new report revealing Tesla’s nondisclosure agreement with Full Self-Driving beta testers, we learn that the automaker is telling them to be “selective” with what they publicly share and warns them that ” a lot of people want Tesla to fail ”.
Last week, Galileo Russell, a Tesla investor who is part of the automaker’s early access program for Full Self-Driving Beta software, said something interesting in one of his videos:
“Tesla doesn’t want us to share all the clips from the videos, just like when it looks good because they know people take it out of context.”
This is something many suspected but no one has ever confirmed. We reached out to Russell to find out exactly what he meant by that, but he didn’t respond.
However, Vice would have obtained the non-disclosure agreement that Tesla has members of the early access program sign.
While he’s a far cry from telling people not to share videos that make Tesla look bad, it comes close enough:
“Motherboard has learned that each FSD beta tester signs a non-disclosure agreement in order to be a member of the Early Access Program (EAP), a community of Tesla aficionados selected by the company. This NDA, whose language Motherboard has confirmed with several beta testers, specifically prohibits EAP members from speaking to the media or testing with the media. He also says, “Remember that there are a lot of people out there who want Tesla to fail; Don’t let them distort your comments and media posts. He also encourages EAP members to “share on social media responsibly and selectively… consider sharing fewer videos, and only those that you feel are interesting or worth sharing”.
To be fair, some beta testers have posted videos of Tesla’s system making significant and potentially dangerous mistakes. Therefore, the automaker doesn’t outright stop beta testers from posting videos that may make them look bad, but the document does encourage self-censorship.
Plus, it encourages beta testers to fight and defend against people who “misrepresent your comments and media posts”.
Taylor Ogan shared a clip on Twitter from one of Russell’s videos where Tesla FSD failed. He gave Russell credit in the Twitter thread, but the beta tester contacted him to ask him to delete the tweet and he even threatened to contact his employer:
” Yes. Please delete your tweet. You can link to my video but not extract my video and give me no credit. It’s illegal. I will follow up with your employer and contact Twitter.
Although he gives the impression that it is a copyright issue here, Ogan claimed that Russell had said he was concerned about losing his beta access and that Tesla fans were “angry” against him because of the clip:
Either way, Tesla will start to lose more control over what people are sharing about its full self-drive beta since it starts opening up access to the fleet.
Taking Electek
I can’t fault Tesla for asking their testers to make them look good. Any business would do that. However, I’m not a fan of them claiming that “a lot of people want Tesla to fail” when they talk about sharing content that could be criticized.
He associates criticism – and there are many valid and constructive criticisms of the FSD beta – with people wishing Tesla would fail.
He encourages this behavior already prevalent among Tesla superfans to view criticisms of the company as “attacks” and attributes intentions behind these criticisms that are often mistaken.
Like in the example above, I don’t think I see any evidence that Ogan “wants Tesla to fail”. On the contrary, he seems positive towards EVs and Tesla, but like many, he has reservations about their approach to autonomous driving.
I’m not saying that no one wants Tesla to fail – because these people certainly exist – but I don’t think that kind of Tesla language is useful given the existing problem they have with some fans, many of whom in the world. beta tester program. , being extremely combative against often fair criticisms.
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