The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened a preliminary evaluation into Tesla Autopilot systems and the ways this driver assistance technology works to “monitor, assist, and enforce the driver’s engagement with driving while Autopilot is in use.”
The reason for the preliminary evaluation is so that the agency can better understand the causes of 11 Tesla crashes that have happened since the start of 2018, a NHTSA spokesperson told Car and Driver in a statement. Seventeen injuries and one death are part of these 11 incidents. More Tesla crashes in which Autopilot was said to factor have happened, of course, but these are the 11 that NHTSA will look into to determine what the agency’s next steps should be regarding Tesla’s technology.
This subset of Tesla Autopilot crashes is important to NHTSA because they all involved cases where first responders were active, the agency said, “including some that crashed directly into the vehicles of first responders.” NHTSA told C/D that it confirmed that in all of these cases, the Tesla vehicles in question either had Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control engaged just prior to the crashes. Most of the incidents also happened after dark, the agency said, and “the crash scenes encountered included scene control measures such as first responder vehicle lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board, and road cones.”
h/t Raymond
Only 11 crashes!? WTF ? ICE automobiles were involved in 1,000x that number of crashes over the same period of time. And yes, a large percentage of those were caused by sleepy drivers. You luddites just refuse to accept our accelerating technology. You must all be in the pocket of BIG OIL … /typ. Tesla fan boi sarc.
Tesla is safer than Wuhan flu?! I’m shocked!
“You luddites just refuse to accept our accelerating technology”.
Hence the crashes, eh?! 😉
You’re absolutely right, Kenji. People will not accept autopilot accidents, even as sleepy drivers and drunks run up a fearsome toll in human misery.
To be fair … here is what is fearsome:
The eventual government MANDATE that ALL cars be electric, and that ALL electric cars be driven by computer … when both technologies are inefficient, costly, inconvenient, and downright dangerous.
But the government is determined to SAVE us all from the FREEDOM of a self-driven ICE vehicle.
And all 11 were unvaccinated…
They died … with … a positive case
Elon Musk,
‘And when you buy and operate one of my vehicles, “your mine”. I control the computer updates and can make you buy another quickly as I manipulate the computer data.’
Oops, did I say that out loud?
Inner voice, remember to use my inner voice.
‘Did I mention that your also receiving a healthy dose of radiation from my massive batteries?’
Inner voice…
I’m bullish on self-driving cars, but they should never have been allowed on public roads in their current state. They’ll get there, but they’re not there yet,
It’s easy to blame Musk for Tesla’s beta-quality autopilot, but of course he’s going to ask state governments to allow them on the roads. Musk is a showman who overstates his products’ capabilities. It’s the state transportation secretaries that allowed it; every one of these deaths is on their heads.
Self-driving cars are a technological cul de sac. The failures seen in Musk’s best efforts cannot EVER be solved. Why? Because no amount of programs and sensors can replicate a competent, attentive, human. In my own 66 years, I estimate I’ve driven myself OUT of a dozen or more potentially massive crashes. By awareness reaching far beyond the range of sensors.
The world is complicated and dangerous … and mankind has evolved a virtually unlimited number of ways to cope. The machines will ALWAYS be blindsided … by using my own brain and responses … I stand a chance.
I could google it but in case someone knows the answer,
does anyone knows if other cars ( Volvos, Mercedes, etc ) that have auto pilot crash as often as Teslas?