To be fair, Lambert doesn't claim to be a journalist, which is obvious when you check out the piece-de-resistance of irresponsible, clickbait headlines:

Lambert has hundreds, if not thousands, of readers with Model 3's. All he has to do is pop off the plastic housing from that driver-facing camera, check the model number, and determine if it's capable of driver monitoring. Also, it appears to be cabin facing, not driver facing. Does it have the resolution to monitor driver behavior off-axis? Maybe. If so, why hasn't it been activated up until now? What hasn't Lambert taken 15 minutes to investigate this?

GM's Supercruise eye-tracking—courtesy of Seeing Machines—works wonderfully. Here's my deep dive comparing it to Tesla's system . And here's another one . I've seen no evidence Lambert has honestly analyzed GM's system. But he sure had the time to link to his own story about Elon Musk saying eye tracking is ineffective. I admire Musk, but he's wrong, and Lambert is a shill for failing to cite opposing views, which are many, and well documented.

" GM’s Supercruise uses eye-tracking which works fairly well, but Musk was apparently not impressed with the technology , so he decided not to use it for Autopilot."

It might be Tesla's best solution, but it's not a solution, because it doesn't force your hands on the wheel. Not even close. It just resets the timer. And it isn't "keeping drivers responsible." They're already legally responsible, based on Tesla's disclaimers. It's reducing bad PR from crashes that may be attributed to Autopilot, even if Tesla's not at fault. And it's not even close to the best possible solution, which isn't coming from Tesla unless they introduce DMS hardware in the cabin itself. You can't wireless update something that requires hardware.

"Right now, forcing the driver to keep their hands on the wheel is Tesla’s best solution for keeping drivers responsible, which ultimately is a good thing for safety."

What an endorsement for safety, from someone who never saw a Tesla Autopilot video he didn't post. With a disclaimer. Gotta get those clicks.

"But this is a case of a few people abusing the system and making it harder for everyone else. A good example is the Tesla owner who got caught on video leaving the driver’s seat while on Autopilot. "

I've enjoyed Tesla Autopilot, but such systems are only as safe as the user is skilled. Technology is only as good—or safe—as our understanding of it. Lambert isn't helping.

Has Lambert heard of skill decrement, or safety expert Missy Cummings ? She was invited by former Autopilot honcho Sterling Anderson to speak about human factors at Tesla back in the day. Guess what she says? Semi-automated systems like Autopilot can lead to inattention and skill atrophy, which leads to crashes because users aren't trained or ready to take over when necessary.

Does that mean the cars will be self-driving? Hard to say. What did Elon Musk actually say? Here's the tweet:

"Tesla’s next major software update ‘version 9.0’ is now set for a release in August and it will include the first ‘full self-driving features’ for Autopilot 2.0 vehicles, says CEO Elon Musk."

What Musk actually said is "we will begin to enable full self-driving features."

But what does that mean? What is "full self-driving"? Electrek has quoted Musk as saying it's Level 5 autonomy, which means go anywhere, anytime, and that it would arrive by April 2019. If that's true, what does a full self-driving "feature" mean? A car is L5, or it's not. A car is autonomous, or it isn't. Anything short of the fully kitty is semi-automated—which means not "full self-driving"—and a lot less likely to generate tens of thousands of people ready to pay $3000 for it pre-delivery, or $4000 after.

The more people who place deposits for Teslas and pay up for "Full Self-Driving," the more the stock will rise. Who benefits from that?

Here's Electrek's take:

"Again, I think it’s important to note that unless there’s something Musk is not telling us, the fact that he says Tesla will “begin to enable full self-driving features” doesn’t mean that it will actually drive itself."

What does that mean? Nothing. Word soup. So Musk has a secret? Is the secret that I'm right and the cars won't be L5 in August? Of course it is. What semi-automated features could possibly be worth $3000? Should people pay for Full Self-Driving now? Lambert isn't saying.

"If people had issues with Tesla naming its driver assist system “Autopilot,” I can’t wait to see what they are going to say about that."

People, as in safety advocates? I've oscillated on Tesla's use of Autopilot as a brand, and did a semantic deep dive last year. Many safety experts have said that even if Tesla's system is a form of autopilot, the general public is unaware of what an autopilot in a plane actually does, and that confusion is unsafe. Duh. So when Lambert says he "can't wait to see about that" he's really saying that he won't investigate why the Autopilot brand has been problematic. Like a passive-aggressive in-law, he'll happily take your side when it suits him, but not too much. Enjoy your Autopilot. Be safe. It's perfect. Until the next software update. Just be safe. All crashes are your fault.

Strange. He sounds just like Tesla. Except that saying those things is Tesla's job. It's not Lambert's. At least, not if he's supposed to be source of news. News cuts both ways—unless you omit some. Lambert is trying to have it both ways, grabbing the site traffic while setting up his own defense for what will happen in August when the first "full self-driving" features aren't.

But wait. We're not done with Lambert's mastery of misinformation.

"But like Musk said, Tesla had mostly been focused on safety when it comes to Autopilot development. Now it looks like they will put some resources on actual new features."

What is Lambert talking about? Autopilot isn't a safety system. It's a convenience system. The Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) is present and functional even if Autopilot is disabled. Forward Collision Warning? Same thing. There is no evidence that using Autopilot is safer than not. It might be safer on long trips, if a driver heeds the warnings and pulls over rather than use it a substitute for paying attention. We all know where that leads.

Lambert suggests that Autopilot is both a safety system, and that sufficient work on its safety is complete for work on "actual new features." What does that mean? I consider my life to be an important feature. Several high profile crashes have killed people recently. Is there some other feature that's more important than safety? If so, what is it?

Again, Lambert word soup.

Safety—and especially Tesla safety—dominates headlines almost daily. Anyone who purports to cover Tesla news has an ethical obligation to do so honestly. You don't need to be an accredited journalist or work for a major news organization to raise the flag of transparency, honesty and ethics. If you have an audience, you owe them the respect of telling the truth not as you see it, but as it is.

I don't care how much money is made or lost on $TSLA, but I do care how many people are killed because of misinformation flowing from Lambert's apparent desire to champion a company from whose success he benefits. If he doesn't, then he's a fool. Either way, Lambert is deceiving everyone, including Tesla fans. Lambert would have us believe Tesla can do no wrong, that their technology is flawless until updated, and that there are no alternatives to what they're selling. These are lies of omission. Lambert would have you believe the critics are literally making things up, which is also a lie.

It is perfectly reasonable to love the vision and have issues with execution, to love the cars and kvetch over quality, to love the innovation but doubt the plan.

Electrek is the perfume fools think they want, rather than the soap they need. If you want to invest in Tesla, read the Wall Street Journal, subscribe to Morningstar, and study some economics. You may not like what you find, or maybe you just have faith in the Tony Stark narrative. I don't care, and if you want to drive a piece of the future, neither should you. The future always comes with a price. It's not just money. It's teething problems. For some, that price is too high. For others, part of the game.

You know what price is too high? Your life. And Electrek is guilty of playing word soup with safety, which is disgusting. No company is without rot, but many companies are without external propagandists on the order of Electrek, who serve their own interests at the expense of others'. When Musk suggests we need a site that ranks journalists based on honesty, he should be careful what he wishes for, because Electrek wouldn't pass the smell test.

We, on the other hand, can choose to buy and read whatever we want. There are many great sources of Tesla news that aren't Electrek. I'd love to recommend some, but I don't want to appear biased.

(CORRECTION: Missy Cummings wasn't hired to speak at Tesla, she was invited.)

Alex Roy — Founder of the Human Driving Association, Editor-at-Large at The Drive, Host of The Autonocast, co-host of /DRIVE on NBC Sports and author of The Driver — has set numerous endurance driving records, including the infamous Cannonball Run record. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.