More Tesla Autopilot crashes surface; NHTSA to investigate another [View all]

[nationalize the fed]

Green Car Reports.com by John Voelcker, July 7, 2016

With details about a fatal May 7 crash of a Tesla Model S operating on Autopilot continuing to garner news coverage, more crashes with Autopilot engaged appear to be surfacing.

Most notably, the NHTSA has said it will investigate a crash on Friday, July 1, in which a Tesla Model X ran off the road and rolled over.



The owner says it was operating on Autopilot, but Tesla Motors issued a statement yesterday saying its data showed no signs of that.

The emergence of more crashes, some of which had been discussed on Tesla owner forums, was reported yesterday by The Wall Street Journal.

From the Tesla Motors Club Forums:
Another Model X crash, driver says autopilot was engaged
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/another-model-x-crash-driver-says-autopilot-was-engaged.73065/

One such case involved a Model S owner whose Autopilot had driven the car along an Interstate highway for 17 minutes when he began to review some papers.

When he looked up, his car was heading straight for a truck parked in his lane. He swerved, but hit the truck. The car was totaled....snip
Read More: http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1104865_more-tesla-autopilot-crashes-surface-nhtsa-to-investigate-another



Related: UK Guardian: Elon Musk's self-driving evangelism masks risk of Tesla autopilot, experts say

Tesla’s ambitious futurism has earned it loyal fans – but after the death of a driver using autopilot, some say the company should be more explicit about limitations...snip

...But in January, just a few months after he chastised drivers for “some fairly crazy videos on YouTube” of hands-free hijinks, Musk told reporters that the Model S was “probably better than humans at this point in highway driving”. Before the updated autopilot was released, he said that the car was “almost able to go [between San Francisco and Seattle] without touching the controls at all”.

In April, he distracted fans and reporters from the news of a recall of 2,700 Model X SUVs with a joking tweet comparing autopilot to the video game Mario Kart.

Talulah Riley, Musk’s wife, shared and deleted an Instagram video of herself driving on the highway between Los Angeles and San Diego without holding the wheel...snip
MORE: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/02/elon-musk-self-driving-tesla-autopilot-joshua-brown-risks

Tesla's Model S Autopilot is AMAZING!