Authorities have determined that a Tesla involved in a fatal accident with a motorcyclist 15 miles outside of Seattle in April had the automaker's Full Self-Driving software active at the time of the collision, according to the Associated Press.
After originally reporting that Autopilot had been enabled at the time of the crash, Washington State Patrol investigators recently determined that Tesla's more advanced FSD was enabled. This discovery was reportedly made after pulling information from the Event Data Recorder (EDR) of the 2022 Tesla Model S involved in the crash.
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Is Autopilot Enabling Crashes?
That's what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants to know. The agency recently opened an investigation into nearly 1,000 crashes involving Tesla vehicles since 2018, looking to determine if Tesla's "weak driver engagement system" was not appropriate for its "permissive operating capabilities," and failed to prevent driver misuse.
The driver of the Tesla Model S, a 56-year-old man, was arrested following the crash for investigation of vehicular homicide.
At the time, he "admitted inattention to driving, while on Autopilot mode, and the distraction of the cell phone while moving forward, putting trust in the machine to drive for him," according to an affidavit. Authorities were unable to independently verify if Autopilot was enabled at the time of the crash. They were recently able to make the determination that FSD was enabled at the time of the collision based on information pulled from the EDR, which Tesla says is "used for post-accident cause analysis and responsibility determination."
It's unclear which, if any, charges will ultimately be pursued against the driver of the Tesla. Ultimately that decision will be left up to the Snohomish County Prosecutor.
"The investigation is still ongoing in this case," wrote WSP Captain Deion Glover in an email to the Associated Press.
The motorcyclist's death comes just months after Tesla issued a recall aimed at forcing drivers to be more attentive to the road. Tesla has been scrutinized over its weak driver monitoring, sub-par real-world performance and false advertising over the naming of its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving software that allegedly gives the public an improper sense of the car's autonomous capabilities.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has since opened a probe into whether or not Tesla's actions were sufficient to address safety issues following 13 deaths and hundreds of crashes.
