Wrong side of the road leads to investigation into Tesla self-driving cars
The US government is investigating Tesla following reports of the company’s self-driving cars driving on the wrong side of the road, jumping red lights, and breaking other traffic laws.
It was aware, it said, of 58 reports in which the vehicles had broken the laws, according to a filing, by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The investigation will cover as many as 2.9 million cars made with Tesla’s full self-driving technology.
The NHTSA ‘s preliminary evaluation hopes to “assess the scope, frequency, and potential safety consequences” of the “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” mode, it said. In that mode, which is an optional extra on Tesla models, the vehicles can make lane changes and turn, but a driver is required to be alert at all times to take over.
The NHTSA report says that there had been six crashes, four of which caused injury, from vehicles that failed to stop at traffic lights. The organisation said that the company had taken action to “address the issue” of cars doing so at a particular intersection in Maryland where the problem was happening repeatedly. It also said it will investigate reports of vehicles driving on the wrong side of the road turning.
Some of the reported incidents had given “little notice to a driver or opportunity to intervene,” it said.
The company is already under an investigation by NHTSA after the door locking mechanisms of its Model Y SUV led to children being reportedly trapped inside. Car owners had smashed the windows in some cases to let the children out.
Tesla has recently revealed cheaper versions of the Model 3 saloon and Model Y, hoping to compete with cheaper electric vehicles from China.
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