Thread by @nytimes

As Elon Musk pushed his vision for self-driving cars at Tesla, he overrode safety concerns and may have misled drivers, former employees say. nyti.ms/3puDMbg

Elon Musk built his electric car company, Tesla, around the promise that it represented the future of driving. Much of that promise was centered on Autopilot, a system of features that could steer, brake and accelerate Tesla's sleek vehicles on highways. nyti.ms/3puDMbg

Unlike other companies working on self-driving vehicles, Musk insisted that autonomy could be achieved solely with cameras tracking their surroundings. But many Tesla engineers questioned the safety of relying on cameras without other sensing devices. nyti.ms/3puDMbg

Now those questions are at the heart of an investigation after at least 12 accidents in which Teslas using Autopilot drove into parked fire trucks, police cars and other emergency vehicles, killing one person and injuring 17 others. nyti.ms/3puDMbg

Musk pushed Autopilot in directions other automakers were unwilling to take this kind of technology, interviews with 19 people who worked on the project over the last decade show. nyti.ms/3puDMbg

Schuyler Cullen, who oversaw a team that explored autonomous-driving possibilities at Samsung, said in an interview that Musk's cameras-only approach was fundamentally flawed.

"Cameras are not eyes! Pixels are not retinal ganglia!" he said. nyti.ms/3puDMbg

Amnon Shashua, chief executive of Mobileye, a former Tesla supplier, said Musk might exaggerate the capabilities of the company's technology, but that those statements shouldn't be taken too seriously. nyti.ms/3puDMbg

Families are suing Tesla over fatal crashes, and Tesla customers are suing the company for misrepresenting Autopilot and a set of sister services called Full Self Driving.

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