The Tesla Model S 2022 was involved in a fatal car accident, as confirmed by the police department in Newport Beach, California. It hit a curb and then rammed into construction equipment on the road.
The accident resulted in the deaths of three people.
U.S. auto safety officials have initiated a specialized crash investigation into this fatal collision.
The culprit? It may be the Tesla Autopilot.
The Tesla Accident That Left 3 People Dead
A spokeswoman for the police department said that when officers arrived, they discovered three dead passengers inside the vehicle. She also mentioned that construction workers were also involved but they had minor injuries that did not threaten their lives.
When asked if the Tesla Autopilot had been turned on, the spokesperson chose not to say anything.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is currently looking into more than 30 different accidents, all of which might have been caused by the Tesla Autopilot.
This particular accident is one of the numerous suspected accidents that involve Tesla's "self-driving" features.
According to TechCrunch, there have been more than 35 Tesla car crash incidents under investigation since 2016 that are suspected to have been caused by the company's advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS). So far, it has been proven that three of those incidents are related to the ADAS.
As a result of these investigations, 14 deaths have been reported. The probe was launched in 2016 in the wake of a fatal accident in Florida involving another Tesla Model S that had Autopilot engaged.
Tesla's Autopilot
When the news of the accident broke out, the vehicle involved looked wrecked, damaged, and somewhat dismantled. However, it was the NHTSA that confirmed that the car involved was indeed a 2022 Tesla Model S.
This incident undeniably adds to the long list of autopilot-related car accidents that the NHTSA will investigate. Tesla's Autopilot is an in-house company feature that all its cars have.
The electric vehicle manufacturer claims it is designed to assist drivers with activities such as steering and maintaining a safe distance from other vehicles on the road.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, electric car companies define their current autopilot feature as a feature that requires active driver supervision and clarify that the self-driving assistance does not render the vehicle autonomous.
Tesla continuously advises system users to stay focused on the road and keep their hands on the steering wheel despite the Autopilot.
However, the company's branding has been accused of giving drivers the wrong impression about the capabilities of their vehicles. The manufacturer of electric vehicles has been marketing for a long time that using Autopilot while driving is significantly safer than driving without using the feature.
Even though the company's technology is nowhere near ready for full self-driving, it gives drivers a false sense of security by giving its newer and more powerful advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) names like "Autopilot" and "full self-driving software."
On Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the NHTSA said she couldn't say anything more about the investigation the agency was doing or confirm details about the event that led to the latest investigation.
On the other hand, Tesla also did not further comment when asked about this recurring problem.
