On October 18, 2023, in Encinitas, California, the United States, a Tesla Model 3 vehicle warned the driver to keep his hands on the steering wheel and be ready to take over at any time when driving using FSD (fully autonomous driving).
Mike Black | Reuters
Tesla faces a new investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) into issues involving its Full Self-Driving systems and how they operate in fog, bright light or other “reduced road visibility conditions.” whether it is safe to use.
The investigation follows an incident in which road visibility was low, including a Tesla driver using FSD who struck and killed a pedestrian, among other FSD-related crashes.
Record Post to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration The website said Friday morning that the purpose of the new survey is to assess:
“FSD’s engineering control capabilities are capable of detecting and appropriately responding to conditions of reduced road visibility; whether any other similar FSD accidents have occurred under conditions of reduced road visibility, and if so, what caused these accidents, etc.”
The agency will also investigate Tesla’s over-the-air software updates to its FSD system, now called Full Self-Driving (Supervised), to understand “the timing, purpose and functionality of any such updates, and Tesla’s conduct an assessment of its security impact.
NHTSA’s “preliminary assessment” involves approximately 2.4 million Tesla electric vehicles on U.S. roads, including: Model S and X vehicles produced from 2016 to 2024, Model 3 vehicles produced from 2017 to 2024, and Drivers of Model Y vehicles through 2024, as well as Cybertruck vehicles produced this year and last year, will have the option of using Tesla’s FSD.
FSD, which the company now calls its “Partial Driving Automation System,” is Tesla’s paid advanced driver assistance option. But Tesla has previously offered a one-month free trial to all drivers in the United States.
U.S. federal vehicle safety regulator orbital collision Involves using the automaker’s advanced driver assistance systems, such as Tesla’s Autopilot or FSD. As of October 1, 2024, NHTSA has tracked 1,399 crashes in which Tesla driver assistance systems were activated within 30 seconds of a collision, 31 of which resulted in fatalities.
Tesla There was no immediate response to a request for comment.
The company recently held a marketing event, and CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla expects to install and run “unsupervised FSD” on Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles in Texas and California next year.
Musk has promised to develop self-driving cars for years. But Tesla has yet to produce or demonstrate a vehicle that can be safely used on public roads without a human behind the wheel, ready to swerve or brake at any time.
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