John Bernal, an employee of Tesla, has been terminated by the Company for being irresponsible on social media. Bernal posted a video on YouTube showing his fully self-driving car hit a pylon.
While this is not the first time that Bernal has posted a video on his YouTube channel, AI Addict, his managers did not approve of him posting this particular video where the car model failed to avoid a pylon damaging the front bumper.
Less than a week after posting the video, Bernal was told by his managers that he had broken the Company’s policy by sharing videos that clearly showed software failure.
Last year, after posting a video, a manager from the Autopilot team had tried to warn Bernal over a video call against posting negative videos about FSD Beta. That video had showed the so called fully self-driving car almost running into people on foot and on cycles on the road. However, at that time, he was not warned in writing. This time, however, he has been issued a termination in writing, but the same does not state the reason for dismissal. He has also been denied further access to the FSD Beta software.The video was viewed by over 250,000 and was widely shared on social networks such as Twitter.
Although, as per media reports, the Company’s social media policy does not keep employees from cricitising the Company’s products, it does expect its employees to use their common sense and good judgement and be responsible while posting comments and reviews on social media.
