The American road safety agency is launching a formal investigation into Tesla’s “self-driving” Autopilot feature.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it was doing so after 11 Tesla accidents were reported since 2018 involving emergency vehicles and the use to self driving system.
Which Models Will Be Investigated?
In some cases, Tesla’s vehicles crashed directly into the first responders’ cars,” it said.
The investigation will cover approximately 765,000 Tesla vehicles manufactured since 2014.
That includes those in Model Y, Model X, Model S and Model 3, says NHTSA – the entire current list.
Fault In The Autopilot System
The federal road safety organization was “deeply concerned” about Tesla’s inability to deal with parked vehicles or stopped cars- especially emergency vehicles who were attending an accident.
NHTSA said it was opening its first investigation into “technologies and methods used to monitor, assist and enforce driver involvement”, while using the self driving system.
The agency said of the 11 accidents that led to the investigation, Tesla’s Autopilot or a system called Traffic Aware Cruise Control was made operational just before the crash took place.
Tesla Says It Has A ‘Complete Self Driving’ System
The self drivingq technology allows the car to automatically control, accelerate and brake.
But the autopilot feature of Tesla has been criticized for being misleading, as it does not automatically drive the car and drivers need to maintain control and attention.
Tesla has already marketed this feature as “Autopilot” and promised to “self driving completely”, now available to other users with a beta version.
Users have misused the system many times before, with examples ranging from using their phones while the car was driving carelessly or to change car seats and let no driver be on the wheel.
NHTSA Statement
In a statement, an NHTSA spokesman said: “There are no vehicles on sale today that can drive them. All available cars require a person to control them at all times.”
The supporting documentation of the investigation, however, recognizes the challenging conditions involved in many collisions.
“Most 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,” it reads.
