Tesla electric cars on autopilot collide with ambulances: 10 such accidents are already being investigated in the USA

Federal safety regulators are investigating at least 11 accidents involving Tesla electric vehicles using autopilot or other autonomous driving features. The edition told in more detail CNN.

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said seven of the crashes resulted in 17 injuries and one death.

All Teslas in question had automatic autopilot or cruise control with motion tracking, NHTSA said.

Tesla (TSLA) shares fell 5% in morning trading following news of the investigation.

The accidents investigated occurred from January 22, 2018 to July 10, 2021 in nine states. They took place mainly at night.

The safety of Tesla's autopilot feature has already been questioned. The National Transportation Safety Board, a separate agency that also investigates plane crashes and other fatalities, found the autopilot was partly to blame for the 2018 Florida fatal crash that killed a Tesla driver.

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Police in suburban Houston, Texas, said there was no one in the driver's seat of the Tesla. A car crashed and killed two people earlier this year, a charge Tesla denies. But Lars Moravi, Tesla's vice president of automotive engineering, confirmed in April that Tesla's adaptive cruise control was engaged and accelerating to 30 mph before the car crashed.

Tesla is committed to offering its drivers complete autonomous driving technology. And while the company says the data shows that cars using autopilot have fewer accidents than cars driven by drivers, the company warns that "current autopilot functions require active supervision by the driver and do not make the car fully autonomous."

The safety agency said the investigation would provide a "better understanding of the causes of some of Tesla's accidents," including "technologies and techniques used to monitor, assist, and ensure driver-driving interaction while on autopilot." He will also consider any factors contributing to the failure.

“NHTSA reminds the public that as of today, no commercial vehicles can drive themselves,” the agency said in a statement. “Every available vehicle requires a human driver to be in control at all times, and all state laws place the responsibility of operating vehicles on human drivers.”

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The study involved Tesla Models Y, X, S and 3 from 2014 to 2021.

Gordon Johnson, a Tesla analyst and avid critic, said the issue is not only about autopilot users, but also other non-Tesla drivers on the road who could be injured by vehicles using the feature.

“NHTSA is focusing on the special danger Tesla poses to people outside the vehicle, those who never agreed to be Autopilot guinea pigs,” Johnson wrote. “So simply saying that ‘Tesla drivers accept the risks of Autopilot,’ as has been used in the past, does not appear to be a defense in this case.”

Self-driving options such as Tesla's autopilot or the more widely available adaptive cruise control available on a wide variety of automakers' vehicles do a good job of slowing the vehicle down when there is a vehicle in front on the road, according to expert Sam Abuelsamid.

But Abuelsamid said these vehicles are designed to ignore stationary objects when traveling at speeds over 40 miles (64 km) per hour, so they do not apply the brakes when approaching overpasses or other stationary objects on the side of the road, such as a vehicle that has stopped. on the sidelines. Fortunately, most of these auto-braking vehicles stop due to stationary objects when they move more slowly, Abuelsamid said.

The real problem, he said, is that many more Tesla owners believe their cars can actually drive themselves.

“Most of the time it’s very good,” Abuelsamid said of Tesla’s Autopilot feature. “But he’s easy to confuse.” Machine vision is not as adaptive as human vision. And the problem is that all machine systems sometimes make stupid mistakes.”

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