► Starbucks union: On Wednesday, ballots are due in a union election at three Starbucks locations in the Buffalo area. None of the more than 8,000 corporate-owned Starbucks locations in the United States are unionized, and though the election involves fewer than 100 workers, a union victory could disrupt the company’s labor model.
Inside Tesla’s Autopilot vision
More than two dozen current and former Tesla engineers have questioned whether the electric car company will be able to produce cars that can safely drive themselves, The Times’s Cade Metz and Neal Boudette report. Many of the engineers said that Elon Musk, Tesla’s C.E.O., pushed the Autopilot driver-assistance system in directions other automakers were unwilling to take, and misled buyers about the technology’s abilities.
Tesla’s Autopilot system relies solely on cameras. Other companies working on autonomous vehicles have decided that cameras alone, an approach embraced by Musk, are not reliable enough. Some experts say that they believe Tesla’s camera-only system will eventually work but that other sensors could be needed in the interim.
Consider a 2016 promotional video. As it was rolling out an updated version of its Autopilot, Tesla posted a video to its website that showed one of its vehicles driving itself at top speeds, making sharp turns and merging into traffic. But Tesla employees who worked on the video said the company used technology not available in Tesla’s vehicles at the time. Also, during filming the car hit a roadside barrier and had to be repaired, they said.
The revelations about Tesla’s self-driving efforts may attract more regulatory scrutiny. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating why Teslas using Autopilot drove into parked fire trucks, police cars and other emergency vehicles. Musk’s company is also facing suits over fatal Tesla crashes, and customers are suing the company for misrepresenting Autopilot.
Musk has recently expressed some doubts about Tesla’s technology. In August, he called Full Safe Driving, a suite of services that respond to traffic signals, “not great,” and said engineers were working to fix it. Last month, Tesla recalled nearly 12,000 vehicles that were part of a test of new F.S.D. features.