5 ms·

This comes after yesterday's news of Tesla letting 229 people go who were working on Autopilot: https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/12/tesla-laying-off-229-autopilot

by pen2l 4y ago

This comes after yesterday's news of Tesla letting 229 people go who were working on Autopilot: https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/12/tesla-laying-off-229-autopilot-workers-shuttering-san-mateo-office-filing-confirms/ https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/12/tesla-laying-off-229-autop....

mkl 4y ago
That's pretty much a totally different category of employee, though: "Tesla is laying off 229 data annotation employees who are part of the company’s larger Autopilot team [...] Most of the workers were in moderately low-skilled, low-wage jobs, such as Autopilot data labeling" Data annotation can be cheaply outsourced or scaled up and down without much affecting progress on self-driving. Karpathy leaving says more about that progress to me.
- xeromal 4y ago
  On top of that, this might signal that Tesla is confident enough in their autolabeling that they no longer need as much human intervention. This job title theoretically should be temporary.
  - cheeselip420 4y ago
    lol - FSD is a scam, and the reckoning is here.
    - xeromal 4y ago
      Idk, does the job for me. Bought it to make my commute easier and it reduces the mental load required to drive in LA traffic.
      - pm90 4y ago
        autopilot != FSD I agree that autopilot by itself, currently is still pretty valuable. What I worry about (and seems to be confirmed) is that Musk misunderstands what’s possible with the current technology and will make outrageous demands from the team, they will fuck up trying to deliver, then the whole thing will become radioactive.
        xeromal 4y ago
        I could totally see that happening. We've definitely had updates that cause more problems than help.
    - jacobjr23 4y ago
      I don't think it's a scam, it's just a really hard problem that will take years or decades longer than originally promised.
      - dekhn 4y ago
        ah, the theranos defense
        BbzzbB 4y ago
        The Theranos playbook would be plugging Cruise under the hood and saying it's Autopilot or FSD controlling the car.
      - pcbro141 4y ago
        It’s a scam when you’re taking people’s money for it and it doesn’t exist and keep extending the release date.
- visarga 4y ago
  > Data annotation can be cheaply outsourced or scaled up Only if you don't care about quality. In my experience using annotation companies leads to a conflict of interest - annotate more to earn more, or annotate better.

by pen2l 4y ago

mkl 4y ago

That's pretty much a totally different category of employee, though: "Tesla is laying off 229 data annotation employees who are part of the company’s larger Autopilot team [...] Most of the workers were in moderately low-skilled, low-wage jobs, such as Autopilot data labeling" Data annotation can be cheaply outsourced or scaled up and down without much affecting progress on self-driving. Karpathy leaving says more about that progress to me.

xeromal 4y ago
On top of that, this might signal that Tesla is confident enough in their autolabeling that they no longer need as much human intervention. This job title theoretically should be temporary.
- cheeselip420 4y ago
  lol - FSD is a scam, and the reckoning is here.
  - xeromal 4y ago
    Idk, does the job for me. Bought it to make my commute easier and it reduces the mental load required to drive in LA traffic.
    - pm90 4y ago
      autopilot != FSD I agree that autopilot by itself, currently is still pretty valuable. What I worry about (and seems to be confirmed) is that Musk misunderstands what’s possible with the current technology and will make outrageous demands from the team, they will fuck up trying to deliver, then the whole thing will become radioactive.
      - xeromal 4y ago
        I could totally see that happening. We've definitely had updates that cause more problems than help.
  - jacobjr23 4y ago
    I don't think it's a scam, it's just a really hard problem that will take years or decades longer than originally promised.
    - dekhn 4y ago
      ah, the theranos defense
      - BbzzbB 4y ago
        The Theranos playbook would be plugging Cruise under the hood and saying it's Autopilot or FSD controlling the car.
    - pcbro141 4y ago
      It’s a scam when you’re taking people’s money for it and it doesn’t exist and keep extending the release date.
visarga 4y ago
> Data annotation can be cheaply outsourced or scaled up Only if you don't care about quality. In my experience using annotation companies leads to a conflict of interest - annotate more to earn more, or annotate better.