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A12 TECHNOLOGY
Thursday 16 June 2022

U.S. report: nearly 400 crashes of

automated tech vehicles

one.
Tesla's crash number may
appear elevated some-
what because it uses tele-
matics to monitor its ve-
hicles and get real-time
crash reports. Other auto-
makers don't have such
capability, so their reports
may come slower or crash-
es may not be reported at
all, NHTSA said. A message
was left seeking comment
from Tesla.
Tesla's crashes accounted
A Tesla owner charges his vehicle at a charging station in To- for nearly 70% of the 392
peka, Kan., Monday, April 5, 2021. reported by the dozen au-
Associated Press tomakers. Although the
Austin, Texas, automaker
By TOM KRISHER Autopilot, "Full Self-Driving," calls its systems Autopilot
AP Auto Writer Traffic Aware Cruise Con- and "Full Self-Driving," it says
DETROIT (AP) — Automak- trol, or other driver-assist the vehicles cannot drive
ers reported nearly 400 systems that have some themselves and the drivers
crashes over a 10-month control over speed and must be ready to intervene
period involving vehicles steering. The company has at all times.
with partially automated about 830,000 vehicles with Auto safety advocates said
driver-assist systems, includ- the systems on the road. driver-assist and self-driving
ing 273 with Teslas, accord- The next closest of a dozen systems have potential
ing to statistics released automakers that reported to save lives, but not until
Wednesday by U.S. safety crashes was Honda, with NHTSA sets minimum perfor-
regulators. 90. Honda says it has about mance standards and re-
The National Highway Traf- six million vehicles on U.S. quires safety improvements
fic Safety Administration roads with such systems. to protect all road users.
cautioned against using Subaru was next with 10, "It's clear that U.S. road
the numbers to compare and all other automakers users are unwitting par-
automakers, saying it didn't reported five or fewer. ticipants in beta testing of
weight them by the num- In a June 2021 order, NHT- automated driving tech-
ber of vehicles from each SA told more than 100 au- nology," said Cathy Chase,
manufacturer that use the tomakers and automated president of Advocates for
systems, or how many miles vehicle tech companies to Highway and Auto Safety.
those vehicles traveled. report serious crashes within Sen. Edward Markey, D-
Automakers reported one day of learning about Mass., said although NHT-
crashes from July of last them and to disclose less- SA's data has limitations, it's
year through May 15 under serious crashes by the 15th not isolated evidence that
an order from the agency, day of the following month. Tesla has ignored regula-
which is examining such The agency is assessing tions and putting the pub-
crashes broadly for the first how the systems perform lic in danger. There have
time. and whether new regula- been "a never ending pa-
"As we gather more data, tions may be needed. rade of reports" of Teslas on
NHTSA will be able to better Six people were killed in automated systems rolling
identify any emerging risks the crashes involving driv- through stop signs or brak-
or trends and learn more er-assist systems, and five ing for no reason, he said.
about how these technolo- were seriously hurt, NHTSA NHTSA also is investigat-
gies are performing in the said. Of the deaths, five ing Teslas that crash into
real world," said Steven occurred in Teslas and parked emergency vehi-
Cliff, the agency's adminis- one was reported by Ford. cles.
trator. Three of the serious injuries "As today's data suggests,
Tesla's crashes happened were in Teslas, while Honda this contempt for auto
while vehicles were using and Ford each reported safety laws has real-world
consequences," Markey
said while urging NHTSA to
take enforcement action.
Manufacturers were not re-
quired to report how many
vehicles they have on the
road that have the systems,
nor did they have to report
how far those vehicles trav-
eled, or when the systems
are in use, NHTSA said. q