Tesla as a carmaker is globally renowned for its fully autonomous vehicles which allows fully self driving capabilities (FSD) to its cars. Recently, the American carmaker pushed the envelope when it revealed a working prototype of the first ever driverless car without a steering wheel named āCybercabā at a recently conducted event at Warners Bros Discovery Studio in California.
However, there has been a huge debate regarding the viability and safety in FSD cars which donāt require human intervention for a long time which continues to persist. In a recent development, the United States auto safety regulator opened an investigation into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with the automakerās FSD software.
This comes after four collisions involving such cars were reported in recent times, including a fatal crash last year. The first step to this probe is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrationās (NHTSA) preliminary evaluation which will determine if such vehicles pose an unreasonable risk to safety and whether to initiate a recall of all cars equipped with FSD or not.
The latest scrutiny of Teslaās industry-leading Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) comes in the midst of stiff competition from legacy car manufacturers and slowing demand of electric vehicles (EVs) in major international markets. It also dampens the momentous occasion for the company of introducing the worldās first driverless car, just a week ago. Tesla would need NHTSA approval to deploy this vehicle without human controls on the roads.
NHTSA said it was opening the inquiry after four reports of crashes where FSD was engaged during reduced roadway visibility like sun glare, fog, or airborne dust. A pedestrian was killed in Rimrock, Arizona, in November 2023 after being struck by a 2021 Tesla Model Y, NHTSA said. Another crash under investigation involved a reported injury. The probe covers 2016-2024 Model S and X vehicles with the optional system as well as 2017-2024 Model 3, 2020-2024 Model Y, and 2023-2024 Cyber Truck vehicles.
Interestingly, Tesla says on its website that its FSD software in on-road vehicles requires active driver supervision and does not make vehicles autonomous. NHTSA is reviewing the ability of FSDās engineering controls to ādetect and respond appropriately to reduced roadway visibility conditions.ā
The agency is currently investigating if other similar FSD crashes have occurred in reduced roadway visibility conditions, and if Tesla has updated or modified the FSD system in a way that may affect it in such conditions. Tesla has been working on its FSD technology for years that aims for high automation, where its vehicle can handle most driving tasks without human intervention.
If this probe doesnāt come out in favour of Tesla, then the American carmaker may have to issue a recall of potentially 2.4 million cars. This wonāt be the first instance when Tesla has carried out a recall exercise of this scale. Earlier in December last year, the Elon Musk-led company recalled more than two million U.S. vehicles to install new safeguards in its Autopilot ADAS. NHTSA is still probing whether that recall is adequate to address concerns drivers are not paying attention.
(With inputs from Reuters)
