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Tesla investigation deepens-
>12 US ‘Autopilot’ crashes
by Lauren Aratani
US federal regulators are
deepening their investigation
into Tesla’s Autopilot function
after more than a dozen Tesla
cars crashed into parked firstresponder
vehicles over a period
of four years.
The National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA)
is upgrading its preliminary
investigation, which launched
last August, to an “engineering
analysis”, which is taken before
the agency determines a recall.
The investigation covers all four
Tesla vehicles – Models Y, X, S and
3 – representing about 830,000
vehicles that have been sold in the
US.
The investigation is focused on
Tesla’s Autopilot feature, which
is supposed to help drivers
navigate roads through artificial
intelligence, which detects other
vehicles. The company instructs
drivers to pay attention to the
road and keep their hands on
the steering wheel while using
Autopilot, though some drivers
have used Autopilot drunk or
sitting in the backseat of the car.
The 16 crashes at the base of the
investigation took place between
January 2018 and January 2022
and resulted in 15 injuries and one
death. In documents posted to
its website, NHTSA said forensic
data indicates that the majority of
the drivers had their hands on the
steering wheel before impact and
were complying with the system
as it was designed to be used.
The agency said this as the
investigation specifically looks
into whether the Autopilot
feature ultimately undermines
“the effectiveness of driver’s
supervision”.
In a letter to Musk last fall,
Jennifer Homendy, chair of the
National Transportation Safety
Board (NTSB) – a separate federal
agency that investigates crashes
and makes recommendations
to other agencies such as the
NHTSA – urged Musk to respond
to its safety recommendations
for Autopilot that it issued to
Tesla back in 2017. The NTSB
recommended that Tesla develop
safeguards that would not allow
drivers to use vehicles in ways
inconsistent with its design.
“If you are serious about putting
safety front and center in Tesla
vehicle design, I invite you to
complete action on the safety
recommendations we issued four
years ago,” Homendy wrote in a
letter to Musk.
48 May/June 2022