The feds are actively investigating nearly two dozen accidents affecting Tesla cars, three of which have occurred in the past month.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it is running 23 probes undergoing Tesla crashes, including this month’s collision stops in Michigan and a February crash that occurred near Houston.
The security agency has also completed four other investigations and released the results, bringing the total number of Tesla probes to 27.
Most of these cases seem to involve Tesla’s controversial autopilot feature, which helps drivers automatically steer, accelerate, and brake in their lane.
In July, NHTSA said its Special Crash Investigation Team had examined 19 crashes related to Tesla vehicles in which investigators believed that “some form of advanced driver assistance system was contracted at the time of the crash. ‘incident’.
The large number of active NHTSA probes is the latest sign of regulators’ concern for Tesla’s vehicle safety, as the company led by Elon Musk expands its “full automatic driving” feature, which allows its cars to park and stop at the red lights. .
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday, but the Silicon Valley automaker has warned drivers that advanced features “require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous.”
The National Transportation Safety Board has already exploited Tesla for its lack of guarantees for autopilot, which has been linked to at least three fatal crashes since 2016.
The Tesla driver who crashed Wednesday morning into the patrol car of a Michigan state soldier was using the autopilot feature. But the system did not activate when another Tesla vehicle drove under a semi-truck in a terrible accident in Detroit last week.
Authorities have not yet determined whether the autopilot was involved in the Feb. 27 crash in northern Houston that left five police officers injured, according to reports.
Tesla shares rose about 0.9 percent in pre-market trading on Friday to $ 659.29 as of 8:20 a.m.
With publishing cables