The probe involves 765,000 Tesla vehicles.
The investigation has been launched after 11 crashes resulting in 17 injuries and one death.
Tesla’s Autopilot driving assistance system is a highly advanced nearly autonomous driving technology. Though it might be impressive, the system is not fully autonomous as the “Full Self-Driving Capability” marketed name might indicate. The NHTSA has now launched an investigation into Autopilot following a near-dozen crashes and one fatality.
This name was found to be misleading in the past to the point where its advertising was banned in Germany. This new probe by the NHTSA will focus on Tesla’s Autopilot system and “the technologies and methods used to monitor, assist and enforce the driver’s engagement with driving while Autopilot is in use” as reported by Bloomberg. The agency will begin its investigation by looking into crashes that occurred while Autopilot was engaged.
“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,” the agency said in the document. “The involved subject vehicles were all confirmed to have been engaged in either Autopilot or Traffic-Aware Cruise Control during the approach to the crashes.”
An estimated 765,000 Tesla vehicles from all model lines from the 2014 model year and on.
