US likely to single out Tesla for crashes involving Autopilot after collecting data on automated driving
- Tesla’s crash rate per 1,000 vehicles is substantially higher than data from other carmakers given to the Associated Press
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been collecting data for a year, previously documenting more than 200 crashes involving Tesla Autopilot
In coming days, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to issue figures it has been gathering for nearly a year. The agency said in a separate report last week that it had documented more than 200 crashes involving Teslas that were using Autopilot, “Full Self-Driving”, Traffic-Aware Cruise Control or some other of the company’s partially automated systems.
Tesla’s figure and its crash rate per 1,000 vehicles was substantially higher than the corresponding numbers for other carmakers that provided such data to the Associated Press ahead of NHTSA’s release. The number of Tesla collisions was revealed as part of a NHTSA investigation of Teslas on Autopilot that had crashed into emergency and other vehicles stopped along roadways.
Tesla does have many more vehicles with partly automated systems operating on US roads than most other carmakers do – roughly 830,000, dating to the 2014 model year. And it collects real-time data online from vehicles, so it has a much faster reporting system. Other carmakers, by contrast, must wait for reports to arrive from the field and sometimes don’t learn about crashes for months.
In a June 2021 order, NHTSA told more than 100 carmakers and automated vehicle tech companies to report serious crashes within one day of learning about them and to disclose less-serious crashes by the 15th day of the following month. The agency is assessing how the systems perform, whether they endanger public safety and whether new regulations may be needed.
General Motors said it reported three crashes while its “Super Cruise” or other partially automated systems were in use. The company said it has sold more than 34,000 vehicles with Super Cruise since its debut in 2017.
Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, said it reported two crashes involving its systems. Ford reported zero involving its “Blue Cruise” driver-assist system which went on sale in the spring, though Ford wouldn’t say if there were crashes with less-capable systems.
