BYD Did What Tesla Never Would. Just Not For The Reasons You'd Hope

At the tail end of 2016, Nikki sat on a press call with other journalists — and Tesla CEO Elon Musk — after the automaker announced its latest iteration of its semi-autonomous driver assistance system: Tesla Autopilot 2.0. She asked a simple question: since Volvo had just promised to indemnify drivers against blame if its semi-autonomous system caused an accident, would Tesla do the same thing? Elon Musk said "No" — but not with a simple reply. He did so by railing against automotive journalists who he accused of killing people. It's been ten years — and we just heard of an automaker finally promising to indemnify its customers from blame, and financial costs, if its semi-autonomous system caused an accident. Enter BYD, which is making that bold promise in relation to its own system — God's Eye. But while BYD is making the pledge, and the automotive media is excited by the promise, there's a layer of nuance missing. So today, we're going to dig deep, examine the past and the present