Tesla's Autopilot under investigation by the feds
Tesla’s Autopilot is under investigation by the federal government.
In a report filed late last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it’s looking into 11 Tesla crashes involving first responder vehicles that parked and marked the road with flares, cones, and other safety equipment at night. Seventeen people were injured and one died during the incidents.
Drivers using Autopilot are instructed to keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road — requirements that some irresponsible Tesla owners ignore.
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The 11 known accidents occurred across the U.S. since 2018. Four happened this year in California, Florida, Michigan, and Texas.
One of the first recorded crashes in Laguna Beach, California, was part of a string of incidents involving stationary vehicles and Tesla cars with Autopilot that were driving more than 50 miles per hour.
Tesla Autopilot is considered a Level 2 system that requires driver attention at all times. There are no commercially available self-driving cars that can operate entirely without human intervention, even if Tesla calls its assistance systems "Autopilot" and "Full Self-Driving."
We reached out to Tesla, but the company did not respond. Tesla can still offer Autopilot as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration starts its probe.
Topics Tesla
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
