Tesla Informs Regulators of Two More Fatal Crashes Related to Its Driving-Assistance Technology The company reported the crashes occurred between September 15 and October 15.
By Gabrielle Bienasz Edited by Jessica Thomas
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Telsa has released information about two new fatal car accidents involving its driving-assistance technology, according to Bloomberg. The crashes were reported between September 15 and October 15, and both involved Tesla Model 3s.
The company, like any maker of cars that operate using a certain level of autonomous driving technology, has been required to report every crash related to that tech to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration since June 2021. The news of the recent fatalities comes after a recall of more than 1,000 Teslas in Australia due to a steering wheel defect.
Despite Tesla CEO Elon Musk's promises to roll out self-driving technology by next year, there are currently no actual self-driving cars on the market, from Tesla or any other company.
Any automatic driving technology is ranked in tiers ranging from 0 to 5. At level one, for example, a car might have lane assistance to prevent someone from accidentally driving into an adjacent lane, per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Tesla's technology falls into level two, which is the level at which a car manufacturer is subject to the NHTSA crash report requirement.
Tesla's Autopilot technology provides autosteering and the ability to match the speed of other cars around it. It has been around since 2015 and is now standard on all Teslas produced for North America, per the company's website.
But the tech is not without controversy. As Bloomberg noted, Tesla has reported a total of 16 fatal accidents involving its Autopilot program since the disclosure requirement was implemented in June 2021. The NHTSA is currently investigating how the tech responds to stopped first-responder vehicles after a series of accidents involving them.
