Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has talked about the automation industry in his campaign, but he could stand to learn a few things when it comes to how to drive Autopilot.
Yang’s latest presidential campaign commercial talks focuses on the automation industry, including him driving a Tesla. There’s one catch though: When he’s behind the wheel of the Tesla Model X, he takes his hands off while on autopilot, which if you know anything about Tesla models, that’s a big no-no.
The ad shows Yang driving the Model X, but at around the 20-second mark, he takes both hands off of the wheel and lets the car keep cruising, something Tesla strongly advises against.
“While using Autopilot, it is your responsibility to stay alert, keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times and maintain control of your car. Before enabling Autopilot, the driver first needs to agree to ‘keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times’ and to always ‘maintain control and responsibility for your vehicle,'” Tesla’s support page on Autopilot reads.
Since Yang’s 30-second campaign commercial focuses on his knowledge of the automation industry, it’s ironic that he makes the mistake that most people know is how Teslas should not be operated.
Digital Trends reached out to Yang’s campaign and to Tesla to comment on the ad. We’ll update this story once we hear back.
Despite his little slip-up, Yang’s points on the automation industry and jobs are something to think about as self-driving cars are becoming more of a reality, especially in driving-centric jobs.
“As automation improves, millions of American workers’ livelihoods are at stake. We need to engineer a smooth transition for these millions of workers so that their contributions are recognized and that they benefit from some of the new efficiencies and cost-savings,” Yang says on his official campaign site.
The ad talks about how the automation industry is costing jobs and how Yang can tackle the economic challenges that come with that.
Already, there have been various improvements and strides in self-driving semi-trucks. Waymo’s self-driving trucks took to the road last week in Texas and New Mexico to test its autonomous “Waymo Driver” kit.
In December, the California-based startup Plus.ai claims to have completed a cross-country trip with a prototype autonomous truck loaded with perishable cargo.
