Tesla Autopilot on top list of car crashes: Report

The crashes involving cars with advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) amounted to 392, of which 273 were Teslas, US Transport Department said in a report.

The data given by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), shows the risks related with the driver-assistance technology that are being deployed in cars.

“We are seeing a never-ending parade of reports about Autopilot operating in ways that skirt out safety laws and endanger the public, from rolling through stop signs and phantom breaking,” ZDNet quoted Senator ED Markey, D-Mass, as saying. “Tesla has argued that Autopilot makes us safer, but this report provides further evidence slamming the breaks on those claims.”

According to the report, Markey said that he and Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., are sending a letter to the NHTSA, “demanding the agency to take swift action to ensure Autopilot and other [ADAS] programs no longer pose a danger to the public.”

Markey said that the NHTSA, “has an obligation to work urgently to fill gaps in its data and use this information for aggressive and effective enforcement of regulations.” 

These data reflect a set of crashes that automakers and operators reported to NHTSA in last year. “While not comprehensive, the data are important and provide NHTSA with immediate information about crashes that occur with vehicles that have various levels of automated systems deployed at least 30 seconds before the crash occurred.”

The data is not completely inclusive for several reasons. For instance, some reporting entities provide the agency with robust data more quickly because their vehicles are equipped with telematics capabilities. Over Telematics, manufacturers and operators also depend on consumer complaints to start collecting data, “which are the second-largest source for L2 ADAS, and field reports, the second-largest source for ADS,” said NHTSA.

Additionally, these data are not normalised by the number of vehicles a manufacturer or developer has deployed or by vehicle miles travelled. “That information is held by manufacturers and not currently reported to NHTSA. Thus, these data cannot be used to compare the safety of manufacturers against one another,” said NHTSA.