(credit: Windell Oskay)
Tesla is making headlines this week over some of its communications choices. First Reuters reported that the company dropped the translated term “Autopilot” and “self-driving” on its Chinese language website. Then, the AP reported that Tesla had reversed course and said that removing the term “Autopilot” was a mistake, though the company admitted it had revised some language on the site.
Next, in an unrelated report, the Wall Street Journal did some communications analysis of its own, finding that CEO Elon Musk has made 20 projections for the company that haven’t quite panned out in the timeframe he stated.
The Chinese Autopilot debacle
This weekend, Reuters reported that Tesla had removed the Chinese translation for the terms “self-driving” and “Autopilot” from the company’s website, after a 33-year-old Tesla owner side-swiped an illegally parked Volkswagen. The accident took place in Beijing earlier this month while the car was in Autopilot mode.
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Source: Ars Technica – Tesla and language: The politics of the word “Autopilot” and CEO promises