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Comment by byoung2 | Hacker News Reader

When I originally saw this video in 2016, I assumed it was filmed under ideal "happy path" conditions. It is standard practice when demo-ing new technology that isn't quite ready for primetime. I bet Siri and Alexa were demoed using pretested phrases and a speaker with a neutral accent in a quiet studio, not in a crowded bar with the cast of Jersey Shore talking.

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Agreed. The only claim in the video is that "The person in the driver's seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything." There's no claim that this is currently shipping hardware or software or that it will work on any other road.

The language MotorTrend uses in reporting the allegations is pretty inflammatory and, I'd say, misleading. They have some cover in that they're only reporting what others have said, so "faked the original video" may be within bounds but "doctored" and "video tampering" is a very strong claim that doesn't seem to be supported.

There is a big difference between filming under ideal conditions with the same software customers get, and fraud by using a completely different software than customers get (which is what Tesla did).

Well the article says we are not sure what Tesla did, and it is quite common to have a prototype with hardware and software much different from what actually ships to customers.

> Siri and Alexa were demoed using pretested phrases and a speaker with a neutral accent in a quiet studio

it's not just "happy path" - for the longest time, Siri could not even understand the samples extracted from it's own advertisement - it was straight up fabricate - https://onefoottsunami.com/2012/05/23/over-promise-and-under...

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