The feds are actively investigating almost two dozen crashes including Tesla cars — three of which have occurred somewhat recently.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it’s running 23 continuous tests of Tesla crashes, including the current month’s pair of collisions in Michigan and a February crash that occurred close to Houston.
The safety agency has likewise completed four different examinations and distributed the outcomes, bringing the all out number of Tesla tests to 27.
The heft of those cases seem to include Tesla’s controversial Autopilot feature, which helps drivers steer, accelerate and brake automatically in their path.
In July, NHTSA said its Special Crash Investigations group had inspected 19 crashes including Tesla vehicles in which agents accepted “some type of advanced driver assistance system was locked in at the hour of the incident.”
The enormous number of active NHTSA tests is the most recent sign of controllers’ concern about the safety of Tesla’s vehicles as the Elon Musk-drove company extends its “Full Self-Driving” feature, which permits its cars to leave themselves and stop at red lights.
Tesla didn’t promptly react to a solicitation for comment Friday, however the Silicon Valley automaker has cautioned drivers that the advanced features “require active driver management and don’t make the vehicle autonomous.”
The National Transportation Safety Board has recently shot Tesla over its lack of protections for Autopilot, which has been connected to at any rate three lethal crashes since 2016.
The Tesla driver who slammed into a Michigan express trooper’s watch car early Wednesday morning was utilizing the Autopilot feature. In any case, the system was apparently not turned on when another Tesla vehicle drove under a semitruck in a horrible crash in Detroit a week ago.
Authorities have not yet decided if Autopilot was engaged with the Feb. 27 crash north of Houston that left five cops harmed, according to reports.
Tesla shares climbed about 0.9 percent in premarket exchanging Friday to $659.29 as of 8:20 a.m.