The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched an official investigation into Tesla’s “self-driving” autopilot system. The company’s cars, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, have been involved in a number of accidents but the investigation is set to focus on 11 specific cases. Those were the accidents where the cars crashed at the sight of the first responders. “Since January 2018, the Error Investigation Office (ODI) has identified eleven crashes where Tesla models of different configurations first encountered a reactive scene and later hit one or more vehicles involved in those scenes. The events are listed by date, city, and state at the end of this summary, ”the NHTSA Error Investigation Office (ODI) wrote in official investigation documents.
“Most of the incidents took place after dark and the scene of the accident involved visual control systems such as first-response car lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board, and a road cone. It was confirmed that the vehicles concerned were engaged in autopilot or traffic-conscious cruise control at the time of the accident. Despite the autopilot name, the car does not drive it and the driver still has full responsibility.
The technology is an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) that allows the car to maintain its lane and speed and communicate with the road environment in a clever way but it can easily be fooled. It was recently reported that it could mistake the full moon for an amber traffic light.
The U.S. auto safety regulator said Monday it has launched an extensive investigation into autopilot systems used in thousands of Tesla electric vehicles. The investigation was sparked by at least 11 accidents involving the use of Tesla’s autopilot, a self-propelled system that can operate, accelerate and brake manually, parked fire trucks, police vehicles, and other emergency vehicles, security agencies, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. , Published.
One woman was killed and 17 were injured in the crash. Safety experts and regulators are scrutinizing the autopilot since the first fatal crash involving the system was reported in 2016, where the driver of a Tesla Model S was killed after being hit by a tractor-trailer in Florida.
