{"id":8638,"date":"2017-08-08T11:45:42","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T19:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2017\/08\/08\/news-2411\/"},"modified":"2017-08-08T11:45:42","modified_gmt":"2017-08-08T19:45:42","slug":"news-2411","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2017\/08\/08\/news-2411\/","title":{"rendered":"Emails Show Los Angeles Mayor\u2019s Office Asked Elon Musk for a Driverless Car Program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Credit to Author: Sarah Emerson| Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2017 18:56:40 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The City of Los Angeles and Elon Musk are having a bit of a moment. <\/p>\n<p>In June, Musk boasted about &#8220;promising conversations&#8221; he&#8217;d had with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti regarding a tunnel network that would ferry vehicles and pedestrians underneath the city. All of this would ostensibly be built by Musk&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/motherboard.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/newz48\/elon-musk-says-ai-research-neuralink-and-the-boring-company-are-just-hobbies\">newest brainchild<\/a>, The Boring Company.<\/p>\n<div style=\"max-width: 550px;\" data-iframely-id=\"I2yb5gF\" class=\"article__embed article__embed--iframely\">\n<div style=\"left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 100%;\" data-iframely-smart-iframe=\"true\"><iframe  src= width=\"100%\" height=\"420\" frameborder=\"0\" ><\/iframe> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>This was classic Musk form\u2014and something we saw him <a href=\"http:\/\/gizmodo.com\/elon-musk-says-he-got-verbal-govt-approval-for-hyperl-1797094592\" target=\"_blank\">do again<\/a> one month later, when he claimed to have gotten &#8220;verbal&#8221; government approval for a Washington, DC to New York City hyperloop line. At this time, Garcetti&#8217;s office would neither confirm nor deny Musk&#8217;s cryptic claims, but in <a href=\"https:\/\/la.curbed.com\/2017\/6\/19\/15831898\/elon-musk-la-tunnels-mayor-garcetti\" target=\"_blank\">a statement<\/a> to <i> Curbed<\/i>, the mayor appeared amenable to innovating the city&#8217;s transportation infrastructure.<\/p>\n<div style=\"max-width: 550px;\" data-iframely-id=\"8DDpNu3\" class=\"article__embed article__embed--iframely\">\n<div style=\"left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\" data-iframely-smart-iframe=\"true\"><iframe  src= width=\"100%\" height=\"420\" frameborder=\"0\" ><\/iframe> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>I was curious to know whether Musk and Garcetti&#8217;s relationship was fact or fiction. So in June, I submitted a public records request to Garcetti&#8217;s office for their email correspondence, and any emails pertaining to Tesla or The Boring Company specifically. <\/p>\n<p>While I didn&#8217;t obtain any messages between the two men, I did learn that Garcetti&#8217;s alleged enthusiasm for Musk&#8217;s ventures was apparently genuine\u2014at one point. Two years ago, Garcetti&#8217;s office hoped to partner with Tesla to launch a groundbreaking driverless car program. And earlier this year, the two parties were speaking once again about an unnamed &#8220;commission&#8221; for the city.<\/p>\n<div data-iframely-id=\"UMhmW1a\" class=\"article__embed article__embed--iframely\">\n<div style=\"left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 141.4227%;\" data-iframely-smart-iframe=\"true\"><iframe  src= width=\"100%\" height=\"420\" frameborder=\"0\" ><\/iframe> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Although Garcetti and Musk (seemingly) didn&#8217;t email each other about this, Borja Leon, who <a href=\"http:\/\/empowerla.org\/mayor-garcetti-announces-key-appointments\/\" target=\"_blank\">serves as<\/a> Garcetti&#8217;s Director of Transportation, did get in touch with Musk&#8217;s office at Tesla. On April 17, 2015, he wrote Musk with a question:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The purpose of this note,&#8221; Leon wrote, &#8220;is to ask and see if you would be interested in partnering with the City, Los Angeles Metro and an academic institution (UCLA, USC) to study and explore a test bed for driverless vehicles.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"article__media\"><picture class=\"article__image\"><source media=\"(max-width: 25em)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/_uncategorized\/1502217683111-Screen-Shot-2017-08-08-at-113940-AM.png?resize=400:*, https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/_uncategorized\/1502217683111-Screen-Shot-2017-08-08-at-113940-AM.png?resize=600:* 2x\"><source media=\"(max-width: 40.625em)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/_uncategorized\/1502217683111-Screen-Shot-2017-08-08-at-113940-AM.png?resize=650:*, https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/_uncategorized\/1502217683111-Screen-Shot-2017-08-08-at-113940-AM.png?resize=975:* 2x\"><source media=\"(max-width: 53.125em)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/_uncategorized\/1502217683111-Screen-Shot-2017-08-08-at-113940-AM.png?resize=850:*, https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/_uncategorized\/1502217683111-Screen-Shot-2017-08-08-at-113940-AM.png?resize=1275:* 2x\"><source media=\"(min-width: 53.125em)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/_uncategorized\/1502217683111-Screen-Shot-2017-08-08-at-113940-AM.png?resize=1002:*\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/_uncategorized\/1502217683111-Screen-Shot-2017-08-08-at-113940-AM.png\" alt=\"\"><\/picture>\n<div class=\"article__image-caption\">Screenshot from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti&#8217;s office.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>By then, the city&#8217;s desire for self driving cars was public. Garcetti&#8217;s office <a href=\"http:\/\/laist.com\/2014\/09\/30\/mayor_garcetti_wants_to_turn_westwo.php\" target=\"_blank\">announced<\/a> in 2014 that, in partnership with UCLA, it hoped to convert the Westwood neighborhood into a testing ground for autonomous vehicles, possibly piloted by Uber or Lyft. He&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.laweekly.com\/news\/driverless-cars-eric-garcetti-spins-visions-of-the-future-at-la-tech-summit-4177253\" target=\"_blank\">said before<\/a> that Los Angeles could become the first metropolis with a &#8220;driverless car neighborhood.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>No reply from Tesla was provided to me. Since my records request specified that entire email threads be included, I&#8217;m assuming the company either did not respond, or followed up through a different communications medium. <\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve asked Garcetti&#8217;s office what, if anything, materialized from this query, but haven&#8217;t heard back yet. Likewise, I&#8217;ve also reached out to Tesla, and haven&#8217;t received a response.<\/p>\n<p>Despite Garcetti&#8217;s technophilia, not much has happened in Los Angeles on the driverless car front. Cities like San Francisco and Pittsburgh have pioneered <a href=\"https:\/\/motherboard.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/yp3xgm\/uber-ceo-and-pittsburgh-mayor-discussed-reducing-state-fines-emails-reveal\">their own<\/a> messy programs, and, as a result, <a href=\"https:\/\/motherboard.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/d7nnqa\/uber-doesnt-want-to-share-self-driving-car-crash-data-with-the-dmv\">autonomous car regulations<\/a> are being forced to catch up. But Garcetti also faces the city&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/2016\/01\/22\/los-angeles-mayor-eric-garcetti-traffic-cars-gridlock-sidewalks-414912.html\" target=\"_blank\">gridlock problem<\/a>. Driverless cars may one day reduce traffic, but the addition of more cars\u2014driverless or not\u2014doesn&#8217;t seem to be an immediate panacea.<\/p>\n<p>Tesla, on the other hand, has been testing its own autonomous vehicles on California roads since late 2016. This is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dmv.ca.gov\/portal\/wcm\/connect\/f1873c87-4f21-4beb-b665-050cada6db7a\/Tesla_disengage_report_2016.pdf?MOD=AJPERES\" target=\"_blank\">according to<\/a> the California Department of Motor Vehicles, where Tesla is required to send any and all &#8220;disengagement&#8221; reports, or instances where the cars&#8217; drivers were forced to take the wheel. <\/p>\n<p>Musk <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/elon-musk-self-driving-teslas-will-go-between-la-and-nyc-by-the-end-of-the-year-2017-04-28\" target=\"_blank\">claimed<\/a> in April that Tesla&#8217;s cars will be driving themselves between Los Angeles and New York City by the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>As for Musk&#8217;s mysterious Boring Company tweet, perhaps he was telling the truth. <\/p>\n<p>A second email provided to me shows <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crunchbase.com\/person\/diarmuid-oconnell#\/entity\" target=\"_blank\">Diarmuid O&#8217;Connell<\/a>, Tesla&#8217;s Vice President of Business Development, asking the city to chat about &#8220;the composition of the commission and its mission and purpose.&#8221; This email was sent on January 23, 2017.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article__media\"><picture class=\"article__image\"><source media=\"(max-width: 25em)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/_uncategorized\/1502217710181-Screen-Shot-2017-08-08-at-114053-AM.png?resize=400:*, https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/_uncategorized\/1502217710181-Screen-Shot-2017-08-08-at-114053-AM.png?resize=600:* 2x\"><source media=\"(max-width: 40.625em)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/_uncategorized\/1502217710181-Screen-Shot-2017-08-08-at-114053-AM.png?resize=650:*, https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/_uncategorized\/1502217710181-Screen-Shot-2017-08-08-at-114053-AM.png?resize=975:* 2x\"><source media=\"(max-width: 53.125em)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/_uncategorized\/1502217710181-Screen-Shot-2017-08-08-at-114053-AM.png?resize=850:*, https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/_uncategorized\/1502217710181-Screen-Shot-2017-08-08-at-114053-AM.png?resize=1275:* 2x\"><source media=\"(min-width: 53.125em)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/_uncategorized\/1502217710181-Screen-Shot-2017-08-08-at-114053-AM.png?resize=885:*\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/_uncategorized\/1502217710181-Screen-Shot-2017-08-08-at-114053-AM.png\" alt=\"\"><\/picture>\n<div class=\"article__image-caption\">Screenshot from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti&#8217;s office.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s not clear which &#8220;commission&#8221; he&#8217;s referring to, since the conversation stops there. I&#8217;ve asked Tesla whether O&#8217;Connell is speaking about a driverless car program, or The Boring Company&#8217;s tunnel project. <\/p>\n<p>If it&#8217;s the latter, maybe Musk really does intend to bore underneath Los Angeles\u2014beyond the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.recode.net\/2017\/7\/1\/15908484\/elon-musk-boring-company-car-tunnel-elevator-dig-spacex\" target=\"_blank\">SpaceX parking lot<\/a>, and with the city&#8217;s blessing, that is. We still don&#8217;t know for sure, because despite his promises to deliver a public good, Musk has done little to engage with the citizens he claims to be helping.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, please remain skeptical of Elon&#8217;s tweets.<\/p>\n<div style=\"max-width: 550px;\" data-iframely-id=\"Ei3xrW2\" class=\"article__embed article__embed--iframely\">\n<div style=\"left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\" data-iframely-smart-iframe=\"true\"><iframe  src= width=\"100%\" height=\"420\" frameborder=\"0\" ><\/iframe> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/motherboard.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/7xxzwq\/emails-show-los-angeles-mayors-office-asked-elon-musk-for-a-driverless-car-program-tesla\" target=\"bwo\" >https:\/\/motherboard.vice.com\/en_us\/rss<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/video-images.vice.com\/articles\/598a01e81490b6634f35737f\/lede\/1502217039776-ee.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Credit to Author: Sarah Emerson| Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2017 18:56:40 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So whatever happened?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[10643,13328,10378],"tags":[13452,13453,13297,8326,5845,13451,13239,13454,907],"class_list":["post-8638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-independent","category-motherboard","category-security","tag-autonomous-cars","tag-driverless-cars","tag-elon-musk","tag-eric-garcetti","tag-los-angeles","tag-self-driving-cars","tag-tesla","tag-the-boring-company","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}