DETROIT (AP) – The US government’s highway safety service sends a team to Detroit to investigate a crash in which a Tesla ran under a trailer.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday night that a special crash investigation team will go to town to investigate the “violent crash.” Two people were seriously injured in the crash that took place on the southwest side of the city last Thursday.
The crash conditions are similar to two others in Florida, in which Teslas drove under tractors and two were killed. In both accidents, in 2016 and 2019, the cars were driven using Tesla’s Autopilot partially automated driving software.
Detroit Police Sgt. Nicole Kirkwood was unable to say whether the Tesla driver was using the company’s Autopilot or “fully self-driving” software. “It’s still under investigation,” she said.
Monday evening, a message was left asking for comment from Tesla. The Palo Alto, California-based company has previously said that Autopilot and “full self-driving” are driver assistance systems and that the driver should be ready to intervene at all times.
But the company has been criticized by the National Transportation Safety Board for not adequately monitoring drivers to make sure they are paying attention. The NTSB, which investigates accidents and makes recommendations, also criticized Tesla for making the system work on roads it can’t handle.
In a Feb. 1 letter to the Department of Transportation, of which the NHTSA belongs, NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt urged the agency to establish regulations for driver assistance systems and for testing autonomous vehicles. NHTSA has relied primarily on voluntary vehicle guidelines, taking a hands-off approach so that it does not hinder the development of new safety technology.
He wrote that Tesla is using its owners to test “fully self-driving” software on public roads with limited surveillance or reporting requirements. “Because NHTSA has no requirements, manufacturers can operate and test vehicles virtually anywhere, even if the location exceeds the limits of the AV (autonomous vehicle) control system,” Sumwalt wrote.
Although Tesla includes a disclaimer that ‘currently enabled features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous,’ NHTSA’s hands-off approach to monitoring AV testing poses a potential risk to drivers and other road users, ”he wrote.
Detroit police said in a statement that a white Tesla sedan drove through an intersection at around 3:20 a.m. on Thursday, hit the trailer and got stuck under it.
Both the male driver and female passenger were taken to a local hospital. The woman was in critical condition on Thursday, while the driver’s condition was not immediately known. Police said the information was preliminary and subject to change upon further investigation.