Tesla removes 'self-driving' and 'autopilot' from Chinese website
Tesla took the terms "self-driving" and "autopilot" down from its Chinese-language website after a driver in China crashed while driving with the autopilot on.
The company told The Washington Post that the change was actually a mistake and it plans to add the word "autopilot" back and also include the term "automatic-assist driving." Mashable reached out to Tesla for comment and clarification regarding the terms.
The Tesla driver, who was using autopilot on a Beijing highway, smacked into a car parked haphazardly on the left side of the road in early August. Tesla's autopilot functionality is designed to keep vehicles from crashing. It is also built to make sure cars stay the same speed and within the same lane.
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No one was injured in the crash, though a similar accident in Florida left a man dead after his Tesla -- with the autopilot on -- crashed into a turning tractor trailer at 65 miles an hour.
A Tesla spokesperson told Reuters the company has "been in the process of addressing any discrepancies across languages for many weeks," and that "timing had nothing to do with current events or articles."
The company also asks that drivers keep both hands on the wheel when autopilot is on. The driver in Beijing, the company said, did not have both hands on the wheel.
Despite what the specifics of the crash might reveal, the incident is likely only to add to the controversy over the "autopilot" label for Tesla's cars.
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Colin is Mashable's US & World Reporter. He previously interned at Foreign Policy magazine and The American Prospect. Colin is a graduate from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. When he's not at Mashable, you can most likely find him eating or playing some kind of sport.
