According to techcrunch report, US federal agencies are investigating a car accident involving a 2022 Tesla Model s, which may run in autopilot state at the time of the accident, resulting in three deaths**
Autopilot is Tesla's advanced driving assistance system (ADAS), which can perform automatic functions such as steering, acceleration and automatic braking. Bloomberg first reported the news.
The accident occurred earlier this month when Tesla hit a roadside and hit construction equipment in Newport Beach, California, resulting in the complete destruction of the car. This is one of more than 30 crashes being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), all of which may involve autopilot. Since 2016, only three of the 35 special accident investigations conducted by Tesla involving the electric vehicle company ADAS have ruled out the possibility of autopilot.
A total of 14 car accident deaths were reported in these investigations. This month's collision is the 42nd special collision investigation conducted by NHTSA on autopilot and other ADAS systems. The investigation began in 2016, when a fatal accident involving another Tesla Model s that started autopilot occurred in Florida.
Although Tesla's website said, "the current autopilot function requires the active supervision of the driver and cannot make the vehicle autonomous," the company's brand publicity was accused of misleading the driver's ability to its vehicle. Just by choosing names like autopilot and "fully automated driving software", Tesla's newer and more advanced ADAS, the company has plunged drivers into a false sense of security, although its technology is far from fully automated driving.