Tesla’s self-driving software under scrutiny

Tesla’s self-driving software under scrutiny

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) intensified its investigation into Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology Wednesday, moving from a preliminary evaluation to an engineering analysis of the software’s ability to function in low-visibility conditions.

The agency is probing nine crashes, including a fatal one, in which Tesla’s software failed to detect poor driving conditions and alert drivers quickly enough in order to allow them to respond.

The electric vehicle (EV) company, which is led by tech mogul Elon Musk, has long pushed toward autonomous driving. FSD is not fully autonomous, with Tesla’s website noting it “will drive you almost anywhere with your active supervision.”

After the company shifted to an entirely camera-based system in 2021, it developed a degradation detection system to identify poor road conditions.

“Available incident data raise concerns that Tesla’s degradation detection system, both as originally deployed and later updated, fails to detect and/or warn the driver appropriately under degraded visibility conditions such as glare and airborne obscurants,” the NHTSA wrote Wednesday.

The agency’s investigative arm found that the company’s software failed to detect “common roadway conditions that impaired camera visibility and/or provide alerts when camera performance had deteriorated until immediately before the crash occurred” in the crashes it reviewed.

It also noted it is analyzing six recent potentially related incidents.

The Hill has reached out to Tesla for comment.

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You’re all caught up. See you tomorrow! 

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