Tesla Studies Two Extra Deadly Autopilot Crashes to NHTSA

Final yr, the Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration demanded that automakers flip of their driver-assist crash information for evaluation. When the knowledge rolled in, it confirmed a single automaker as an unbelievable outlier, with way more crashes than others: Tesla. Just lately, the automaker’s excessive scores haven’t been getting any decrease, and it appears that evidently development continued by way of final month.

For the month ending October 15 (as a result of authorities can’t make issues simple for us by utilizing precise calendar months) Tesla added two extra deadly crashes to its driver-assist roster. Oddly, nevertheless, just one crash truly occurred throughout that interval — the opposite was practically a full yr in the past.

The administration doesn’t differentiate between Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD Beta driver-assist merchandise, as each operate at SAE Stage 2, so it’s unclear which software program every automobile was operating on the time of the collision. What is identified is that each crashes concerned Tesla Mannequin 3s, each occurred in California, and each concerned a fatality.

Frustratingly, there’s little info to work from past that. Earlier incidents state whether or not they concerned pedestrians or different motorists, however these two appear to be extenuating circumstances. The sooner crash, from December 2021, refers to a “narrative” for particulars — just for that discipline to be fully redacted from NHTSA.

The opposite crash, from September of 2022, seems to be too new for a lot information to exist. A lot of the related info, from telemetry information as to if the occupants had their seatbelts buckled, is just left clean within the NHTSA database. On condition that it’s solely a preliminary report, nevertheless, it’s doubtless extra information will roll in with time.

Whereas we could not have each final element, we do know that this provides at the least two extra deaths to the Tesla toll. Every one serves as a reminder for drivers, to be extremely conscious of what their driver-assist methods are doing — and all the time be able to intervene if one thing goes mistaken.