The Tesla share price yesterday dropped 4.3% after an investigation was launched by U.S. safety regulators into the electric car maker’s autopilot system. Tesla’s with their assisted driving system engaged have recently been involved in a number of accidents involving emergency vehicles, bringing potential issues to attention.
In announcing the investigation, federal officials cited 11 separate incidents involving Tesla vehicles crashing at “scenes” involving emergency vehicles. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, all were confirmed as having been using either Tesla’s autopilot or “traffic-aware cruise control” modes at the time of the incident.
An investigation will now be made into all the, approximately, 765,000 Teslas in the country to look for signs of wider, potentially concerning, patterns of incidents involving the vehicles. Tesla has not, as yet, responded to the development with any comment.
On announcing the opening of the investigation, U.S. safety administration listed dates and locations where Tesla vehicles “struck one or more vehicles” at “first responder scences” across nine states, injuring 17 people. One person also died. The most recent of the 11 incidents took place in San Diego on July 10.
If the administration’s initial analysis raises enough concern, the investigation could be escalated to an engineering analysis. The body would have the authority to order recalls. Similarities in the circumstances of the crashes have been noted with the administration commenting:
“Most incidents took place after dark and the crash scenes encountered included scene control measures such as first responder vehicle lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board and road cones.”
The implication is that the combination of poor natural lighting and bright lights from emergency vehicles and scenes could be contributing to failures in Tesla’s self-driving systems. Its autopilot system, which Tesla is developing as a full driverless system to be launched when laws change to allow it and the technology has been perfected, lets drivers take their hands off the wheel for extended periods.
However, even with Tesla’s autopilot mode enabled, current safety regulations say drivers still retain “primary responsibility” to identify and respond to obstacles or other circumstances that may develop.
The investigation “will assess the technologies and methods used to monitor, assist and enforce the driver’s engagement” when Autopilot is activated, and will also examine the technological system used by Tesla.
On Thursday Tesla is scheduled to hold an artificial intelligence conference which CEO Elon Musk said would see the company present the technologies used in the development of its self-driving hardware and software.