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U.S. opens probe into Tesla’s Autopilot over emergency vehicle crashes

NHTSA says it had reports of 17 injuries and one death in 11 crashes into parked ambulances and fire trucks

David Shepardson and Hyunjoo Jin, Reuters
Aug 17, 2021  •  August 17, 2021  •  2 minute read  •  Join the conversation
A Tesla crashed into a fire truck near Los Angeles in 2018.
A Tesla crashed into a fire truck near Los Angeles in 2018. Photo by Culver City Firefighters

U.S. auto safety regulators on Monday opened a formal safety probe into Tesla’s driver assistance system Autopilot after a series of crashes involving Tesla models and emergency vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it had identified 11 crashes since January 2018 in which Teslas “have encountered first responder scenes and subsequently struck one or more vehicles involved with those scenes.”

The probe will take in 765,000 U.S. vehicles with Autopilot built since 2014.

NHTSA, which closed an earlier investigation into Autopilot in 2017 without taking any action, has come under fire for failing to ensure the safety of the system that handles some driving tasks and allows drivers to keep their hands off the wheel for extended periods.

After the new probe, the auto safety agency could opt to take no action; or it could demand a recall, which might effectively impose limits on how, when, and where Autopilot operates. Any restrictions could narrow the competitive gap between Tesla’s system and similar advanced driver assistance systems offered by established automakers.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chief Executive Elon Musk has repeatedly defended Autopilot and in April tweeted that “Tesla with Autopilot engaged now approaching 10 times lower chance of accident than average vehicle.”

NHTSA said it had reports of 17 injuries and one death in the 11 crashes, including the December 2019 crash of a Tesla Model 3 that left a passenger dead after the vehicle collided with a parked fire truck in Indiana. The 11 crashes included four this year; all were of vehicles “confirmed to have been engaged in either Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control,” it said.

Before NHTSA could demand a recall, it must first upgrade an investigation into an engineering analysis. The two-step investigative process often takes a year or more.

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NHTSA said most of the 11 crashes took place after dark and crash scenes included measures like emergency vehicle lights, flares or road cones. Its investigation will assess technologies “used to monitor, assist, and enforce the driver’s engagement” with driving when using Autopilot operation.

Musk tweeted last month that Tesla’s advanced camera-only driver assistance system, known as “Tesla Vision,” will soon “capture turn signals, hazards, ambulance/police lights & even hand gestures.”

Autopilot was operating in at least three fatal Tesla U.S. crashes since 2016, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has said. The NTSB has criticized Tesla’s lack of system safeguards for Autopilot and NHTSA’s failure to ensure the safety of Autopilot.

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