About F%$#ing Time

After almost a decade of selling its sub-par lane keeping assist software as full self driving, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is re-opening its investigation of Tesla's lane holding assist software, disingenuously called "Autopilot", which has been responsible for dozens of crashes over the years:

U.S. auto safety regulators on Monday opened a formal safety probe into Tesla Inc' driver assistance system Autopilot after a series of crashes involving Tesla models and emergency vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it had identified 11 crashes since January 2018 in which Teslas "have encountered first responder scenes and subsequently struck one or more vehicles involved with those scenes."

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NHTSA, which closed an earlier investigation into Autopilot in 2017 without taking any action, has come under fire for failing to ensure the safety of the system that handles some driving tasks and allows drivers to keep their hands off the wheel for extended periods.………

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chief Executive Elon Musk has repeatedly defended Autopilot and in April tweeted that "Tesla with Autopilot engaged now approaching 10 times lower chance of accident than average vehicle."

NHTSA said it had reports of 17 injuries and one death in the 11 crashes, including the December 2019 crash of a Tesla Model 3 that left a passenger dead after the vehicle collided with a parked fire truck in Indiana.

The 11 crashes included four this year and it had opened a preliminary evaluation of Autopilot in the 2014-2021 Tesla Models Y, X, S, and 3. The crashes involved vehicles "all confirmed to have been engaged in either Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control," it said.

Before NHTSA could demand a recall, it must first upgrade an investigation into an engineering analysis. The two-step investigative process often takes a year or more.

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Autopilot was operating in at least three fatal Tesla U.S. crashes since 2016, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has said.

The NTSB has criticized Tesla's lack of system safeguards for Autopilot and NHTSA's failure to ensure the safety of Autopilot.

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Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina, said the parked emergency crashes "really seem to illustrate in vivid and even tragic fashion some of the key concerns with Tesla's system."

NHTSA, he said, "has been far too deferential and timid, particularly with respect to Tesla."

In related news, US Senators Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey have requested that the Federal Trade Commission look into Musk and Tesla's long history of lying about their system's capabilities:

Two U.S. senators on Wednesday pressed the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to probe Tesla (TSLA.O), saying the company has misled consumers and endangered the public by marketing its driving automation systems as fully self-driving.

"Tesla and (CEO) Mr. (Elon) Musk’s repeated overstatements of their vehicle’s capabilities ... put Tesla drivers – and all of the traveling public – at risk of serious injury or death," Senate Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey said in a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan.

"Tesla drivers listen to these claims and believe their vehicles are equipped to drive themselves – with potentially deadly consequences."

Tesla, and for that matter Elon Musk, has received large subsidies in the form of regulatory forbearance over the years, and this needs stop.

With PayPal, people just lost a few bucks, but now Musk is killing people.