The United States is launching a probe on the autonomous driving of Tesla on the death of pedestrians
The United States government's road safety agency is once again investigating Tesla's “Autonomous Total” system, this time, after obtaining accidents in low visibility conditions, one of which has killed a pedestrian.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicates in documents that it opened the probe on October 17, the company having reported four accidents after Teslas entered areas of low visibility, including the dazzling of the sun, fog and airborne dust.
In addition to the death of pedestrians, another accident involved an injury, the agency said.
Investigators will examine the capacity of “full self-deputy” to “detect and react appropriately to the conditions of visibility of the reduced roads, and in the affirmative, the contributory circumstances of these accidents”.
The survey covers approximately 2.4 million teslas between the years of model 2016 to 2024.
A message was left at the beginning of October 18 to request comments from Tesla, who said on several occasions that the system could not behave itself and that human drivers must be ready to intervene at any time.
Last week, Tesla organized an event in a Hollywood studio to unveil a fully autonomous Robotaxi without steering wheel or pedals. The CEO, Elon Musk, said that the company planned to have fully autonomous vehicles running without human drivers next year and a robotaxis available in 2026.
The agency also said that it would try to find out if other similar accidents involving “total autonomy” has occurred in small visibility conditions, and it will seek information from the company to find out if updates have affected the system performance under these conditions.
“In particular, his examination will assess the calendar, the goal and the capacities of these updates, as well as the evaluation by TelSa of their impact on security,” said the documents.
Tesla has twice recalled “complete self-limited” under pressure from the agency, which in July asked for information from the police and society after Tesla using the system struck and killed a motorcyclist near Seattle.
The reminders were issued because the system was programmed to execute stop panels at slow speeds and because the system has disobedued other traffic laws. The two problems had to be resolved with online software updates.
Critics have said that Tesla’s system, which only uses cameras to locate dangers, has no appropriate sensors to be fully self-commissioned. Almost all other companies working on autonomous vehicles use radar and laser sensors in addition to cameras to see better in dark or mediocre visibility conditions.
“Autonomous” reminders arrived after a three -year investigation into the less sophisticated automatic pilot system of Tesla, collapsed in an emergency and other vehicles parked on motorways, many of whom with flashing warning lights.
This survey was closed last April after the agency pressure on Tesla to recall its vehicles to strengthen a weak system which made sure that drivers were careful. A few weeks after the recall, the NHTSA began to find out if the recall worked.
The investigation opened on October 17 is entering a new territory for the NHTSA, which had previously considered Tesla systems as helping drivers rather than driving. With the new survey, the agency focuses on the capacities of “complete self-limited” rather than simply ensuring that drivers pay attention.
This story was reported by the Associated Press.
