After looking into hundreds of alleged Tesla Autopilot crashes, the government discovered the following, and it plans to look into more of them.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the United States has concluded one of its largest investigations of Tesla’s Autopilot driving assistance system. The study linked the technology to thirteen fatal collisions and compelled the company to alter its driver recognition software towards the end of last year. Following years of investigation and hundreds of crash reports, the organization discovered the following, which may explain why the government may not have been satisfied with the Autopilot and Autosteer system recall in December 2023.
.The initial investigation was initiated in the summer of 2021 in response to several reports of Tesla Autopilot’s poor design and misuse by users, as well as repeated incidents involving parked emergency vehicles. After nearly three years, the NHTSA found that Tesla’s first Autopilot system design resulted in “foreseeable misuse and avoidable crashes,” connecting the technology to 13 fatal events, as reported by TechCrunch.
211 of the crashes had “adequate time for an attentive driver to respond to avoid or mitigate the crash,” 145 crashes had “roadway departures in low traction conditions,” and 111 crashes involved Autosteer being “disengaged by the driver’s inputs.” According to the NHTSA, it reviewed 953 reported crashes up until August 30, 2023. Of those, 489 incidents did not have enough reported or relevant information to relate to the investigation.
Tesla currently records driver inputs and attention with an in-cabin camera and a steering torque sensor, following a December 2023 recall.
The statement from Tesla as of late is: “Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot, and Full Self-Driving Capability are meant to be used by a fully focused driver who has both hands on the wheel and is ready to take control at any time. Although the vehicle won’t fully autonomous just yet, these characteristics are meant to get better with time.” But this week, the NHTSA also said that it is investigating whether the December recall is sufficient to allow owners of Tesla vehicles to safely utilize their system, in addition to declaring the end of the 2021 investigation.
NHTSA is now saying that Tesla’s recently implemented precautions “could be easily reversed” by opt-in users, according to the Washington Post, after testing at an Ohio facility. The agency also stated that it has more concerns about the system moving forward.
In an independent MotorTrend test of the “recalled” system on a Model Y car, our test driver discovered that the system failed to alert him or her to keep control of the car by touching the steering wheel for a full seven minutes. It was also discovered during our testing that the driver monitoring camera only turns on when the Autosteer is turned on—Autopilot is not engaged—and that it only does so apparently while traveling at speeds higher than thirty miles an hour.
Our findings from January: “To us, this update seems clearly tailored to stave off further government action for the time being while keeping ‘nags’ to a minimum, not to reduce driver distraction and improve safety.” We believe that NHTSA agrees with our findings, and that the agency may ask for additional action to rectify the shortcomings that both we and NHTSA discovered in Tesla’s driver assistance systems when it investigates whether the recall is adequate.