self-driving
Bulletins

The US is investigating Tesla's Autopilot

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is focused on 11 crashes involving emergency vehicles at other accidents scenes.

The Tesla logo on a yellow background.

Tesla has designed cars for the self-driving era.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday it would probe Autopilot on an estimated 765,000 Tesla vehicles following crashes involving emergency vehicles at other accident scenes.

NHTSA identified 11 crashes, including one fatality, going back to 2018 that involved the self-driving technology and said it would "assess the technologies and methods used to monitor, assist, and enforce the driver's engagement with the dynamic driving task during Autopilot operation."

Most of the accidents occurred at night and involved lights on first responder vehicles, road flares or other points of illumination.

NHTSA could demand a recall, according to Reuters, which also reported that the company's director of autonomous driving technology said in 2020 that recognizing a parked police car's flashing lights was a challenge for the system.

Human drivers are supposed to be engaged with their vehicles even when using Autopilot. The investigation covers models X, S, Y and 3 for 2014 through the this year.

Ben Brody

Ben Brody (@ BenBrodyDC) is a senior reporter at Protocol focusing on how Congress, courts and agencies affect the online world we live in. He formerly covered tech policy and lobbying (including antitrust, Section 230 and privacy) at Bloomberg News, where he previously reported on the influence industry, government ethics and the 2016 presidential election. Before that, Ben covered business news at CNNMoney and AdAge, and all manner of stories in and around New York. He still loves appearing on the New York news radio he grew up with.

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