US agency starts investigation of Tesla’s autopilot – and Tesla shares fall
Tesla in autopilot mode. (Image: Flystock / Shutterstock)
The US traffic safety agency NHTSA has started a formal investigation into Tesla’s autopilot. Hundreds of thousands of Tesla electric cars are said to be affected. The share is on the decline.
Car accidents that involve a Tesla vehicle with an activated autopilot make headlines again and again. Most recently, two people were killed in a fatal accident involving a Tesla with autopilot in Texas. Now the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has initiated a formal investigation into Tesla’s autopilot in its electric cars. There is a particular focus on accidents with emergency vehicles.
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Tesla’s autopilot in its sights: eleven accidents, one fatality
Since January 2018, the NHTSA has, according to an official document Identified eleven accidents in which Teslas drove into fire or police vehicles with the autopilot apparently switched on. And that, although these – for example at an accident site – would have drawn attention to themselves with different warning lights. In the accidents investigated, each with one or more vehicles, there were a total of 17 injuries. A person was killed, how CNBC reports.
According to NHTSA, a Tesla first hit a fire truck in early 2018 – in the Californian city of Culver City. This emergency vehicle had blocked the road at an accident site with the warning lights switched on. Other rear-end collisions are said to have occurred in Laguna Beach, Norwalk, Cloverdale, Lansing and Miami, among others. Most of the incidents occurred after dark, according to the agency.
NHTSA investigation: 765,000 Tesla vehicles affected
For its investigation, the NHTSA wants to take a close look at all Tesla vehicles (Model S, X, 3 and Y) delivered between 2014 and 2021. Accordingly, around 765,000 vehicles from the Californian electric car manufacturer are said to be affected. After the planned investigation became known, the shares of the electric car manufacturer began to descend. On Monday it was up to five percent downhill. In the afternoon, New York time, the paper recovered somewhat, but remained clearly in the red.
