FILE - This July 8, 2018, file photo shows Tesla 2018 Model 3 sedans sitting on display outside a Tesla showroom in Littleton, Colo. The U.S. government has opened a formal investigation into Tesla's Autopilot partially automated driving system, saying it has trouble spotting parked emergency vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced the action Monday, Aug. 16, 2021, in a posting on its website.
On Monday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had opened a formal investigation into Autopilot. The agency said it was aware of 11 accidents since 2018 involving Teslas that crashed into police, fire and other emergency vehicles with flashing lights parked on roads and highways. In one of them, a Tesla plowed into a fire truck in December 2019 in Indiana, killing a passenger in the car and seriously injuring the driver.Distracted driving can be deadly in any car.
Tesla, the world’s most valuable automaker, and CEO Elon Musk describe Autopilot as a way to make driving easier and safer. “The technology exists to limit where Autopilot can operate, but Tesla allows drivers to use it on roads it shouldn’t operate on,” said Jason K. Levine, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a Washington nonprofit group. “They made a corporate decision to do that, and it’s resulted in preventable tragedies. That should be enraging.”
On the night of the accident, he left Boca Raton and headed south over major highways. South of Miami, he got on U.S. Route 1, took a narrow toll bridge from the mainland to Key Largo and continued on Card Sound Road, a two-lane road that ends at County Road 905. McGee had Autopilot on, and the speed was set at 44 mph, according to data that the police retrieved from the car.
In court, Tesla has filed a brief response denying the estate’s claims without elaborating. In similar cases, the company has said any blame rests solely with the drivers of its cars. Musk has said monitoring drivers while cars operate on systems like Autopilot may not be needed because machines are much safer than people. “Having a human intervene will decrease safety,” he said in an April 2019 interview with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher.Benavides emigrated from Cuba in 2016 and lived with her mother in Miami. She worked at a Walgreens pharmacy and a clothing store while attending community college.