[throwawaysea]

Both this article and the Ars Technica article (https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/04/consumer-reports-shows-...) are prime examples of misinformation and fake news. Unfortunately they won’t be flagged as such by Twitter or Facebook, even though they very regularly flag other articles for having misleading headlines or missing context.

The Consumer Reports people went out of their way to bypass Tesla’s existing safety features, by placing a fake weight on the wheel (a heavy chain) and by buckling the seat belt without anyone sitting there. So what - it’s a contrived experiment.

Lots of people in social media seem to hate Elon Musk and are using this as some sort of indictment of him or Tesla. I don't see anything particularly interesting or outrageous about this. People can misuse cars already, and they will come up with clever workarounds in the future as well. It’s not exclusive to Tesla. It’s not even exclusive to cars. You could misuse a kitchen knife as a toothbrush but that doesn’t mean Cutco need to be regulated.

[clouddrover]

> Both this article and the Ars Technica article are prime examples of misinformation and fake news. Unfortunately they won’t be flagged as such

The articles won't be flagged as such because they are neither misinformation nor fake news.

[throwawaysea]

The Ars headline is: “Consumer Reports shows Tesla Autopilot works with no one in the driver’s seat”

That is misinformation. Facebook and Twitter have flagged articles for much less, because they felt the headlines were misleading or incomplete.

[croes]

So Teslas Autopilot does not work with no one in the driver seat?

[clouddrover]

It isn't and they haven't. Reading past the headline is a basic skill of news reading. It doesn't make it misinformation just because you don't like the headline.

[throwawaysea]

You know full well many people will share this article, never read past the headline, and repeat it. The sentiment held in the headline will be the one that persists and the damage to Musk and Tesla’s reputation will be done, even though the truth is that you would need to artificially rig up the car to defeat its safety measures.

[clouddrover]

> You know full well many people will share this article, never read past the headline, and repeat it

People not reading an article does not make the article misinformation or fake news.

> the damage to Musk and Tesla’s reputation will be done

I wouldn't worry about that. Musk does enough reputational damage all by himself.