Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, unveiled on October 9, 2014 a new four-wheel drive version of the Model S car in Hawthorne, California.
Lucy Nicholson | Reuters
On Monday, the National Road Safety Administration said it was “immediately” reopening an investigation into Tesla following a fatal crash in Spring, Texas over the weekend.
Two men were killed in the crash on Saturday night and apparently no one was behind the wheel, according to several personal interviews with local police.
The electric vehicle, a Tesla 2019 Model S, crashed into a tree and burst into flames. One person was found in the front passenger seat and another in the rear passenger seat of the vehicle.
Police and NHTSA have not yet completed their comprehensive investigations. A preliminary report is not conclusive, and there are still questions about whether Tesla’s advanced driver assistance systems were used before or during the crash.
The company’s systems are marketed under the brand names Autopilot, Full Self-Driving or Full Self-Driving beta. Tesla incorporates the Autopilot standard into all of its newer vehicles. And it sells Full Self-Driving for $ 10,000 with a subscription option.
Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (or FSD) technology do not make Tesla vehicles safe to drive without a driver at the wheel. Some customers who purchase the FSD option also have access to a “beta” version to try out the latest features added to the system on public roads before any errors are worked out.
The company says in its owner’s manuals that drivers should only use Autopilot and FSD with ‘active supervision’.
At the same time, CEO Elon Musk considers these systems to be safe and constantly improving on Twitter, where he has 50 million followers and appears in the media.
In an episode of the popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast in February, Musk and Rogan discussed how Tesla drivers could play chess on their cars’ touchscreens while driving, even though they should not. (They have to press a button to say they are the passenger.)
In the same episode, Musk also said, “I think Autopilot gets good enough that you will not have to drive most of the time unless you really want to.”
The great hope for autonomous and automated driving systems currently being developed is that it, like seat belts, automatic emergency braking, airbags and other technologies that have become standard, will prevent the collisions from occurring or reduce their impact. According to NHTSA data, there were 36,096 deaths in car accidents in 2019.
The National Road Safety Administration has so far opened about 28 investigations into accidents involving Tesla vehicles, and about 24 of these are active today.
The National Transportation Safety Board, an independent federal agency investigating accidents to determine contributing factors, has called on NHTSA to set strong safety standards for automotive vehicle technology. NTSB particularly criticized Tesla for poor safety practices in its recommendations and expressed frustration over NHTSA’s unwillingness to act after multiple fatal accidents involving Uber and Tesla vehicles.
Joshua Brown in Florida, Walter Huang in California and Jeremy Banner in Florida, killed the Tesla autopilot, in addition to the two men who died in Texas. An autopilot-involved accident also killed Tesla driver Gao Yaning in China, and there was an accident in Japan that took the life of a pedestrian, Yoshihiro Umeda.
Here is the full statement that an NHTSA spokesman sent to CNBC about the accident in Spring, Texas:
“NHTSA is aware of the tragic accident involving a Tesla vehicle outside Houston, Texas. NHTSA immediately launched a special Crash Investigation team to investigate the accident. We are actively working with local law enforcement and Tesla to “Learn more about the details of the crash. collapse and will take appropriate action when we have more information.”