June 10, 2023

WASHINGTON — The Nationwide Freeway Visitors Protection Management mentioned on Thursday it has opened two new particular investigations into crashes involving Tesla Inc. automobiles the place complicated motive force help programs are suspected to were in use.

The brand new crashes underneath investigation come with an eight-vehicle crash on Nov. 24 at the Bay Bridge in San Francisco during which the driving force of a 2021 Tesla Style S reported the Complete-Self Using characteristic had malfunctioned, consistent with a police document. The opposite fresh crash comes to a 2020 Style 3 in Ohio the place a minor damage was once reported.

Within the Bay Bridge incident that led to 2 minor accidents, police mentioned they have been not able to decide if its “Complete-Self Using” machine was once activated.

Since 2016, NHTSA has opened 41 particular crash investigations involving Tesla automobiles and the place complicated motive force help programs comparable to Autopilot have been suspected of getting used, together with 8 investigations in 2022. A complete of nineteen crash deaths were reported in the ones Tesla-related investigations.

NHTSA normally opens greater than 100 particular crash investigations once a year into rising applied sciences and different doable auto issues of safety that experience, for example, up to now helped to increase protection regulations on air baggage.

Tesla didn’t reply to a request for remark.