Tesla continues to be under the close attention of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as several outlets report that the government has opened two new investigations into accidents involving Tesla vehicles. The investigation appears to be focused on driver assistance systems and semi-autonomous driving technology as one of them is suspected of causing an accident last Thanksgiving in San Francisco.
As recently reported, the 2021 Tesla Model S was traveling over the San Francisco, Oakland Bay Bridge at 55 mph (89 km/h) when it suddenly slowed to 20 mph (32 km/h) during a lane change. This caused eight cars to crash, resulting in nine people suffering minor injuries.
Drivers blamed the incident on Tesla’s full self-driving mode (FSD), but authorities were not immediately able to verify that. Now, it seems that the NHTSA will check whether that is true or not. In addition to the crash, the government will investigate a collision involving a 2020 Model 3. Little is known about the incident, but Reuters reports it occurred in Ohio and resulted in minor injuries.
While the investigation is still ongoing, CNBC said, NHTSA is investigating at least 41 accidents involving Tesla vehicles in which automated features such as automatic emergency braking, or broader driver assistance system features including in Autopilot, FSD and FSD Beta were involved. Where This reportedly resulted in 14 fatalities.
There’s no word on whether technology was to blame for the incidents, but previous government investigations have exposed the driver and Tesla in a negative light. In particular, some owners rely too heavily on semi-autonomous driving technology and pay no attention to the road ahead.
