The U.S. opened a formal investigation into Tesla Inc.\u2019s Autopilot system after almost a dozen collisions at crash scenes involving first-responder vehicles, stepping up its scrutiny of a system the carmaker has charged thousands of dollars for over the last half decade.<\/p>\n
The probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration covers an estimated 765,000 Tesla Model Y, X, S and 3 vehicles from the 2014 model year onward. The regulator — which has the power to deem cars defective and order recalls — said it launched the investigation after 11 crashes that resulted in 17 injuries and one fatality.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost incidents took place after dark and the crash scenes encountered included scene-control measures such as first-responder vehicle lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board and road cones,\u201d the agency said in the document. \u201cThe involved subject vehicles were all confirmed to have been engaged in either Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control during the approach to the crashes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tesla shares fell as much as 5.7% before settling down 4.9% to $682.04 at 12:51 p.m. in New York. Representatives for the electric-car maker didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Autopilot is Tesla\u2019s driver-assistance system that maintains vehicles\u2019 speed and keeps them centered in lanes when engaged, though the driver is supposed to supervise at all times. The company has been criticized for years for naming the system in a potentially misleading way. Since late 2016, it has marketed higher-level functionality called Full Self-Driving Capability. It now sells that package of features — often referred to as FSD — for $10,000 or a $199 a month.<\/p>\n
A NHTSA spokesperson said the agency\u2019s preliminary investigation will focus on Tesla\u2019s Autopilot system and \u201cthe technologies and methods used to monitor, assist and enforce the driver\u2019s engagement with driving while Autopilot is in use.\u201d The agency is looking at crashes in which Tesla\u2019s Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control were engaged.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are glad to see NHTSA finally acknowledge our long standing call to investigate Tesla for putting technology on the road that will be foreseeably misused in a way that is leading to crashes, injuries and deaths,\u201d said Jason Levine, the executive director of the Center for Auto Safety. \u201cThis probe needs to go far beyond crashes involving first responder vehicles because the danger is to all drivers, passengers and pedestrians when Autopilot is engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n
NHTSA investigated Tesla\u2019s Autopilot in the wake of a 2016 fatal crash and cleared the system early the following year. The regulator has opened at least 30 special crash investigations involving Tesla cars that it suspected were linked to Autopilot, with the pace of probes picking up under the Biden administration.<\/p>\n
The first of the 11 crashes that prompted the latest probe occurred in January 2018 in Culver City, California, according to NHTSA. The most recent incident occurred July 10 in San Diego. Others occurred in Florida, Michigan, Texas, Arizona, Massachusetts, Indiana and Connecticut.<\/p>\n
NHTSA announced in June that it would order car manufacturers to report crashes involving automated-driving technology within one day of learning of such incidents. The agency had largely taken a hands-off approach to regulating driver-assistance systems up to that point so as not to stand in the way of their potential safety benefits.<\/p>\n
Jake Fisher, director of auto testing at Consumer Reports, said Autopilot and other hands-free driving systems now offered on cars need technology trained on drivers to make sure they are watching the road when using the feature.<\/p>\n
\u201cNHTSA, in no uncertain terms, needs to understand what\u2019s going on and do something to help prevent these types of crashes, not just in Teslas, but in other vehicles that use this technology,\u201d Fisher said in an interview. \u201cA more robust way of assuring that the driver is looking at the road is the only way we\u2019re going to keep people safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fisher pointed to General Motors Co.\u2019s Super Cruise, which uses cameras to monitor the driver\u2019s gaze and to make sure they are watching the road while using the technology. For years, Tesla only attempted to monitor if there was a hand on the wheel and did not have cameras monitoring the driver.<\/p>\n
In April, Consumer Reports \u201ceasily tricked\u201d Tesla\u2019s Autopilot system to operate while no one was sitting in the driver\u2019s seat. Fisher also has long been critical of the name of Tesla\u2019s system.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a lot of people, Autopilot means that the car is self-driving,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cBut regardless of what they call it, the experience behind the wheel leads to over-reliance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. opened a formal investigation into Tesla\u2019s Autopilot system after almost a dozen collisions at crash scenes involving first-responder vehicles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":410066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29366],"tags":[20719],"class_list":["post-410064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-tesla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410064"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}