To evaluate Tesla’s autopilot system, the US agency NHTSA requires answers about the camera in the vehicle’s cabin.
Already last Thursday, the US authorities National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) asked the car manufacturer Tesla to provide answers on cabin surveillance in the vehicles. Tesla has until October 12 to do this.
US authorities have been increasing pressure on Tesla in recent times. This is about the safety of the assistance system Tesla. First it was called Autopilot and now there are two versions of it, one is called FSD – which stands for Full Selfdriving. the terms are part of the criticism of Tesla. Especially since there are now several deaths and the Tesla drivers keep neglecting them control. Some of them think that the vehicle would actually be able to drive itself. There have also been accidents involving emergency vehicles.
To assess the safety of the system, NHTSA now wants information about the monitoring in the vehicles’ cabs. The US agency has sent the manufacturer a nine-page letter with questions that Tesla must answer by October 12. It is about the role of cabin camera in enforcing the attention test. According to Tesla, the cabin camera can detect the driver’s inattentiveness.
Tesla drivers must have one hand on the steering wheel. If you put your hand down, an alarm sounds. An additional attention check initially wanted to avoid the leadership of Tesla. In order to dedicate yourself to other things, there was initially the autopilot Buddy – a program that suppresses this warning tone. The system was banned in 2018.
NHTSA is able to order a vehicle recall. In the worst case, all 830,000 Tesla vehicles that have such an autopilot assistant would be affected.