Tag: tesla crash

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NHTSA investigates another Tesla crash involving death of motorcyclist

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is opening yet another special investigation into a Tesla vehicle crash, according to documents viewed by TechCrunch. This time it involves the crash of a 2021 Tesla Model Y that killed a motorcyclist in California earlier this month.

Reuters was the first to report the special investigation.

This is the 38th special investigation of a crash involving a Tesla vehicle since 2016. Of those crashes, 18 were fatal. The latest probe, like most of the others, seeks to ascertain whether or not Autopilot, Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system, was in use at the time of the crash.

Earlier this month, the NHTSA opened an investigation into one such fatal crash in which a pedestrian was killed and involved a 2018 Tesla Model 3 in California. The NHTSA also opened up special probes into another fatal Tesla crash, this one in Florida, which killed a 66-year-old Tesla driver and a 67-year-old passenger. In May, the agency began investigating a crash involving a 2022 Tesla Model S that killed three people.

The NHTSA declined to comment on the case, as it is still open. Local news reported that on July 7, a 48-year-old motorcyclist was killed after a collision on the Riverside Freeway in Riverside. He was riding in the HOV lane and was approached from behind by the Tesla. A crash then occurred that hurled the rider onto the freeway, according to My News LA.

The NHTSA usually opens more than 100 special crash investigations each year that probe emerging technologies.

Tesla cannot be reached for comment because it has disbanded its press office.

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NHTSA probes Tesla Autopilot crash that killed three people

A U.S. federal agency is investigating a crash involving a 2022 Tesla Model S that may have been operating in Autopilot during a crash that killed three people.

Autopilot is Tesla’s advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) that performs automated functions such as steering, accelerating and automatic braking. Bloomberg first reported on the news.

The accident, which happened earlier this month, occurred in Newport Beach, California when the Tesla hit a curb and slammed into construction equipment, leaving the car totaled. This is one of more than 30 crashes being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), all of which potentially have involved Autopilot. Out of the 35 special crash investigations into Tesla since 2016 involving the electric vehicle company’s ADAS, Autopilot has been ruled out only in three.

A total of 14 crash deaths have been reported in those investigations.

This month’s collision is the 42nd included in NHTSA’s special crash investigation of ADAS systems like Autopilot, a probe that began in 2016 after a fatal accident in Florida involving another Tesla Model S that had Autopilot activated.

While Tesla’s website says that “Current Autopilot features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous,” the company’s branding has been accused of misleading drivers of their vehicles’ capabilities. Simply by choosing names like Autopilot and “full self-driving software,” which is Tesla’s newer, more advanced ADAS, the company lulls drivers into a false sense of security despite the fact that its technology is nowhere near full self-driving.

US safety regulator opens investigation into Tesla Autopilot following crashes with parked emergency vehicles

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Tesla says fatal crash involved Autopilot

Tesla has provided another update to last week’s fatal crash. As it turns out, Tesla said the driver had Autopilot on with the adaptive cruise control follow-distance set to minimum. However, it seems the driver ignored the vehicle’s warnings to take back control.

“The driver had received several visual and one audible hands-on warning earlier in the drive and the driver’s hands were not detected on the wheel for six seconds prior to the collision,” Tesla wrote in a blog post. “The driver had about five seconds and 150 meters of unobstructed view of the concrete divider with the crushed crash attenuator, but the vehicle logs show that no action was taken.”

The promise of Tesla’s Autopilot system is to reduce car accidents. In the company’s blog post, Tesla notes Autopilot reduces crash rates by 40 percent, according to an independent review by the U.S. government. Of course, that does not mean the technology is perfect in preventing all accidents.

As Tesla previously noted, the crash was so severe because the middle divider on the highway had been damaged in an earlier accident. Tesla also cautioned that Autopilot does not prevent all accidents, but it does make them less likely to occur.

No one knows about the accidents that didn’t happen, only the ones that did. The consequences of the public not using Autopilot, because of an inaccurate belief that it is less safe, would be extremely severe. There are about 1.25 million automotive deaths worldwide. If the current safety level of a Tesla vehicle were to be applied, it would mean about 900,000 lives saved per year. We expect the safety level of autonomous cars to be 10 times safer than non-autonomous cars.

In the past, when we have brought up statistical safety points, we have been criticized for doing so, implying that we lack empathy for the tragedy that just occurred. Nothing could be further from the truth. We care deeply for and feel indebted to those who chose to put their trust in us. However, we must also care about people now and in the future whose lives may be saved if they know that Autopilot improves safety. None of this changes how devastating an event like this is or how much we feel for our customer’s family and friends. We are incredibly sorry for their loss.

This development, of course, comes in light of a fatal accident involving one of Uber’s self-driving cars in Tempe, Arizona.