Another fatal car accident has reignited the debate about the safety of Tesla’s “Autopilot” driving assistance system. A 28-year-old motorcyclist was on Wednesday evening after a crash with one Tesla Model S killed. The Tesla driver said he was using the Tesla Autopilot feature and was looking at his cell phone at the time of the accident.
Authorities said, according to the AP news agency, that it has not yet been conclusively proven that the Tesla autopilot was actually active at the time of the accident. The investigation is still in an early phase, said police and traffic authorities in Washington state.
The 56-year-old Tesla driver was temporarily arrested. He admitted that he wasn’t paying attention to the road while driving.
Tesla has repeatedly emphasized in the past that the driving assistance system with the misleading name “Autopilot” does not relieve the driver of the obligation to pay attention to traffic while driving. Tesla has not yet commented on the latest accident.
Recall of 2 million vehicles and update of the system
Just a few months ago, the US transport authority ordered Tesla to recall around two million vehicles to the workshop. Tesla should install a camera-based system to ensure that drivers pay attention to the road even while driving on Autopilot. At the same time, Tesla was asked to update its software to increase the number of warning signals to distracted Tesla drivers. In recent years there have been an increasing number of accidents when Tesla vehicles with an autopilot function collided with parked emergency vehicles.
According to the traffic safety authority, there have been at least 35 accidents since 2016 involving Tesla vehicles with the Autopilot assistance system activated.
During the Presentation of the figures for the first quarter had Tesla boss Elon Musk the day before emphasized that the further development of the autonomous driving (Full Self Driving Mode) is one of the group’s most important goals.