Tesla autopilot blamed for massive accident: 8 cars collided, 9 people were injured, including a child

At the end of November, on Thanksgiving Day, there was a large-scale accident in a tunnel in California (USA). Then 8 cars collided, 9 people were slightly injured, including a child who was hospitalized. And the culprit in this accident may be Tesla's autopilot.

Details

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) examined footage from the tunnel and found that the accident was caused by the Tesla: the car made an unsafe lane change and then drastically reduced its speed from 88 km/h to 32 km/h. As a result, the cars that were following him crashed into each other.

The police report says the Tesla driver blames the automaker's Full Self-Driving software, which apparently had a glitch. But the Highway Patrol can't yet confirm whether the software was working at the time of the accident.

The incident is being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), along with several other crashes, including fatal ones in California and Florida, and another in Utah that killed a motorcyclist.

Each of these accidents involves Tesla's Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS), a $15,000 autopilot or Full Self-Driving (FSD) software package that performs many of the same tasks as autopilot on local and residential streets. The Full Self-Driving package includes features such as auto lane change, best lane selection, self-parking, stopping at red lights, identifying road signs through the navigator, and identifying obstacles in the road.

At the same time, Tesla representatives state that the responsibility for the safe operation of the car operating on autopilot or full autonomous driving lies with the driver.

Source: The Verge, CNN Business