Tag Archives: autopilot

Tesla On Autopilot Crashes Into Police Car — Again

Further validating the NHTSA investigation into such things, another Tesla flying on Autopilot has crashed into a police car conducting a routine traffic stop, this time in Florida, reports Automotive News.

It may or may not be the fault of Autopilot itself. It is certainly the driver’s responsibility, because either way, he shouldn’t be allowing his car to smash into police cars on the side of the road. Jalopnik makes a convincing argument about how awful Level 2 autonomy systems such as, but not limited to, Autopilot are. They can drive under ordinary circumstances, but it doesn’t take much to confuse them, at which point the human driver is expected to take over immediately. We’re bad at doing this. It’s not that we’re bad drivers (well, some of us are) — it’s just human nature.

At this point, just add one more incident for NHTSA to investigate, and be glad that nobody got hurt — especially the cop who might’ve been standing on the side of the road if the timing had been different.

NHTSA Opens Probe Into Tesla Autopilot Crashes

It’s been a long time coming, but it was crashes with emergency vehicles that prompted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to open an investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot semi-autonomous driving feature. Since January 2018, there have been 17 injuries and one death in 11 crashes, all of which involve Teslas operating in Autopilot mode colliding with vehicles at first responder scenes. This investigation covers 765,000 Teslas, all models, from 2014 to 2021.

Read more at Reuters.