Tesla Autopilot Staff Reportedly Told To Ignore Road Signs So It Drives “More Like A Human”

In an expose on Tesla's toxic workplace, a worker assigned to Autopilot data training disclosed to Business Insider that they felt like they were employed by a "dystopian company" and that their supervisors often told them to ignore traffic signs.
To make its Autopilot driver assistance system work, Tesla installs cameras in every corner of its electric vehicles to monitor the surroundings and assess the road ahead.
The EV giant has a full team of researchers that program Autopilot to react to various scenarios that may arise on the road, while the car's internal computers make decisions about how to react on the fly to things like traffic signs and parked cars.
The worker who chose to remain anonymous told Business Insider in an essay that they were occasionally under pressure to break certain traffic laws at their Buffalo workplace in order to make the system operate ‘more like a human’.
"There were some times we were told to ignore 'No Turn on Red' or 'No U-Turn' signs," the employee said. "Those were the kinds of things that made me and my coworkers uncomfortable."
As if programming cars to break the law wasn’t bad enough, the whistleblower also expressed concern about video footage taken from cars being shared throughout the offices, including one terrifying instance in which a boy riding a bicycle was struck by a car.
The whistleblower said: “When I first started at Tesla, it was common for people to share clips around the office, usually just odd things they saw. But one worker took it too far. He shared a clip of a little boy who’d been hit by a Tesla while riding his bike. I thought that was sadistic.”

According to the insider, Tesla started watermarking video footage in order to identify a controller and would now terminate the employment of anyone who shared the footage. However, employees would occasionally still distribute images throughout the office, "especially if it's something out of the ordinary."

The employee concluded by saying that their experience working for Tesla was very different from what they had expected when they started, that they thought it would be a great opportunity for their career, but that they are simply worker ants for the automaker.