The federal government says they have found a “critical safety gap” in Tesla’s autopilot system. This gap has led to more than 400 crashes, thirteen of which were deadly.
It was said that Tesla autopilot was used in more than 950 accidents that were looked into by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The study says that Tesla’s design for the autopilot “led to foreseeable misuse and avoidable crashes.” The method did not do enough to make sure drivers paid attention and used it correctly.
People were most upset about the fact that the autopilot would keep running even when the driver wasn’t looking at the road. The government body said they will start an investigation into a software update that Tesla sent out to fix problems with the autopilot. They think the update wasn’t enough because since then there have been more reports of crashes. It was said that the update would make driver tracking systems better for more than two million cars.
Many government officials are telling federal regulators that Tesla should only be able to use these car features on “roads it was designed for.”
The senators said, “We urge the agency to do everything that needs to be done to stop these vehicles from putting lives at risk.”
In just the past month, Tesla and the Huang family settled a case. Huang was a worker for Apple who died in a car accident while driving his Tesla Model X with the autopilot turned on. He died when the car went off the road and hit a guardrail.
Tesla has asked that the public not be told about the specifics of the deal. Even as these events have come to light, Musk has said that self-driving cars will be the company’s future.
What Elon Musk said “I don’t think anyone should invest in Tesla if they don’t think the company will solve the problem of autonomy.” Musk said, “We will, and we are.”
