Huawei's head of autonomous driving, Su Qing, was removed from his position after being criticized for his controversial remarks regarding Tesla vehicles. Qing claimed that Elon Musk's cars are killing people.
Qing attended the World Artificial Intelligence Conference. It was there that the made the claim that Tesla has a high accident rate. He continued to reference the accidents involving Tesla Autopilot where he claimed that the cars "killed" people.
Huawei's Head Fired for Insensitive Claims
As translated by Minews, Qing said that Tesla has had a high accident rate in the past few years and that the accident types are similar, from the killing of the first person to the most recent one. He went on to say that their autonomous driving department at Huawei wants to reduce the accident probability as low as possible.
Qing's comments were controversial because there were not backed up by any data proving that Tesla vehicles have a higher accident rate compared to other automakers.
As for Qing's claims, people have indeed died in accidents involving Tesla's vehicles, but there are pushbacks against blaming the company since the automaker has been transparent about the limitations of autopilot and that the driver is always responsible and should take control.
On July 27, Huawei announced that Su Qing had been removed from his position. He will enter the reserve team to train again, and he will later be distributed to another department.
According to Electroteck, the appointment and removal document was signed by the founder of Huawei himself, Ren Zhengfei.
Global Times reported that the demotion was due to the comments about Tesla. Meanwhile, Su Qing argued that the comments were more of a warning that since self-driving vehicles are becoming more common, there is a higher chance of more accidents and needs to be addressed.
Tesla's Accident Rate
According to the US auto safety regulators, around ten fatal car accidents from 2016 to 2020 were caused by Tesla vehicles in autopilot mode.
Tesla's autopilot is an advanced driver assistance system that is promoted to enhance the safety and convenience of the driver.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, laid out his vision for fully self-driving cars to be made available in the near future.
However, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration pointed out that there have been several Tesla accidents involving autopilot.
In 2019, two men from Texas were killed after their Tesla Model S crashed into a tree and caught fire. No one was in the driver's seat when the accident happened.
One victim was found by the police seated in the front passenger seat while the other was at back of the car. The vehicle was travelling at high speed when it missed a curve.
Several fires related to Tesla Model S were also reported. The incidents began in 2013, with owners claiming that the vehicle would overheat and would suddenly catch fire while they were driving.
In 2016, a Model S vehicle was involved in a car accident and caught fire with the driver still inside. In 2018, a Tesla vehicle was driven by TV director Michael Morris suddenly burst into flames.
Related Article: Tesla Autopilot Crash New Data Reveals Someone was Allegedly Behind the Wheel
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Written by Sophie Webster
