Washington — US vehicle safety regulators said Wednesday that they had identified a twelfth collision involving a Tesla vehicle that was using advanced driver assistance systems in an emergency vehicle-related incident.
On August 16, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that it had begun a formal safety investigation into Tesla’s driver assistance system Autopilot after 11 collisions.
According to NHTSA, the 12th occurred in Orlando on Saturday. Authorities sent Tesla an 11-page letter containing a question dated Tuesday as part of the investigation.
Tesla’s autopilot handles several driving tasks, allowing the driver to take his hands off the steering wheel for extended periods of time. According to Tesla, the autopilot allows the vehicle to automatically steer, accelerate and brake in the lane.
Tesla did not immediately respond to the request for comment.
On Saturday, Florida Highway Patrol said Tesla attacked Florida soldiers who stopped to assist disabled drivers on major highways.
Florida highway patrols said Tesla in autopilot mode struck a police car. “The trooper was out of the car and was very lucky not to be hit,” the agency said in a tweet.
NHTSA previously killed passengers after a vehicle crashed into a parked fire engine in Indiana 17 injured and 1 killed in 11 crashes, including the December 2019 Tesla Model 3 crash Said that there was a report from the person.
In July, Tesla introduced an option for some customers to subscribe to advanced driver assistance software called “Fully Automated Driving.” Tesla states that its current function “does not make the vehicle autonomous.”
Among the questions NHTSA wants Tesla to answer are “dates and mileage when the” Full Self-Driving “(FSD) option was activated” for all vehicles, and all consumer complaints, field reports, etc. There are crash reports and lawsuits.
NHTSA also wants Tesla to explain the “methods and techniques used to prevent the use of targeted systems externally” in the operational design domain.
NHTSA also asked Tesla to explain “required testing and validation prior to the release of the Covered System or before in-field updates of the Covered System, including the Covered System’s hardware and software components.”
NHTSA also asked Tesla to disclose any changes or changes that “may be incorporated into vehicle production or pushed to target vehicles in the field within the next 120 days.”
Tesla must answer NHTSA’s questions by October 22, it said.
David Shepherdson
