Has concluded in the investigation of Tesla

NHTSA, the “National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,” concluded a year-long investigation (PDF) of Tesla’s self-driving system. They also believe that referring to the function as “autopilot” can be misleading.

Updated two million cars – that may not be enough

“In particular, the term “autopilot” does not mean an L2 assistance function, but rather evokes the idea of drivers who are not in control. This terminology can lead drivers to believe that the automation has better capabilities than it actually does and invites drivers to over-rely on the automation. “Similar vehicles generally use more conservative terminology such as ‘assist’, ‘sense’ or ‘team’ to suggest that the driver and automation are intended to work together, with the driver monitoring the automation,” they write in the report.

The last time the company was investigated was in 2021. Hundreds of crashes were analyzed, including 13 times a person died as a result of the injuries, supposedly the autopilot system was to blame in some of the situations in whole or in part. Also in the new report, it is claimed that autopilot is “linked” to hundreds of personal injuries and dozens of deaths. A total of 956 crashes were investigated from January 2018 to August last year.

NHTSA claims the system “was not sufficiently engaged in the driving task,” and that in 59 crashes the driver had five or more seconds to react. In 19 of the cases, the hazard was visible for more than 10 seconds before the collision occurred.

NHTSA also mentions 53 crashes were identified where “Autosteer was in use in a lower traction environment, such as on wet roads, where the vehicle lost traction and then directional control, leading to a crash where the first injurious event was running off the road . In these low traction events, generally the vehicle leaves the lane almost immediately after losing lane center which often results in a collision with a barrier or other object.”

All models must be examined

After an update in December to further make the user of the Autopilot system alert to the traffic picture with the feature enabled, NHTSA is said to be unhappy that owners must choose to disable the features or roll back safety updates. Every model with autopilot since 2012, including the Cybertruck, is examined.

A comparison of Tesla’s design choices with other L2 cars identified Tesla as doing things differently in its approach to L2 technology by mismatching a weak driver engagement system with Autopilot’s permissive operating characteristics.

NHTSA

The article is in Norwegian

Tags: concluded investigation Tesla

Updated two million cars – that may not be enough

All models must be examined

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