BREAKING : National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched a formal investigation of the Tesla Autopilot

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Washington DC, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched a formal investigation of the Tesla Autopilot electronic driver aid’s apparent difficulty identifying parked emergency vehicles and first responder scenes.

The agency said 11 crashes in which 17 people were injured and one person died have occurred since 2018 where drivers were confirmed to have been using Autopilot or its Traffic Aware Cruise Control function when their vehicles collided with “one or more vehicles” in or on the side of the road. According to the Office of Defects Investigation report most of the incidents occurred after dark and all involved illuminated vehicles, signs and cones.

The investigation covers all four of Tesla’s models from the 2014 to 2021 model years and will “include examination of contributing circumstances.”