Driver Assistance and Convenience Systems Linked to Crashes, Auto Safety Regulator’s Report Shows
It’s NHTSA's first tally of crashes involving active driving assistance systems, such as Tesla’s Autopilot, and self-driving car prototypes from companies like Waymo
By Keith Barry
The nation’s top road safety regulator released the first round of data it collected about crashes that took place in connection with a vehicle automating some driving tasks. Between July 20, 2021, and May 15, 2022, 392 crashes that involved advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) to automate at least part of the steering, braking, and acceleration tasks were reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). These crashes resulted in six fatalities and five serious injuries.
A closer look at the report released today shows:
Types of crashes: The majority of collisions were with other vehicles, while the second-highest number of collisions took place with poles, trees, and other fixed objects.
Unknowns: There are lots of unknowns. For example, details of what the ADAS-equipped vehicle collided with were not known for about a third of reported crashes.
Pedestrians: There was one reported crash with a cyclist, three with pedestrians, and two with first responder vehicles.
Crashes by automaker: Tesla, Honda, and Subaru reported the most crashes. Tesla had the highest number of crashes—273—followed by Honda, with 90 crashes.
Crash reports: Most of the crashes were reported to NHTSA through a vehicle’s built-in telematics system, which means the vehicle reported its own crash through a built-in internet connection. Not all vehicles have this capability. Some incidents were reported by drivers and law enforcement, and according to NHTSA, some of the reports could be duplicates.
NHTSA
Although it may be tempting to draw conclusions about the efficacy of specific systems, that’s not the point of this report, says Anne Collins, NHTSA’s associate administrator for enforcement.
“The design of the report is not to look at any one company or to compare companies,” Collins said at a press conference today. For example, there are still many unknowns in the reported data, and the data has not been normalized for vehicle miles traveled or the number of vehicles on the road. That means that a manufacturer’s higher number of crashes may be related to the number of vehicles it has on the road or its ability to automatically collect information about collisions. In addition, the individual incident reports may be incomplete or unverified.
Tesla’s Autopilot, which automates some driving and steering functions, might be the best-known active driving assistance system, but about 50 percent of vehicle models offer systems with enough built-in automation that they would be required to report crashes to NHTSA, according to CR’s analysis. The report only mentions 12 automakers, but CR has identified 25 automakers that sell vehicles with ADAS systems that can automate steering, acceleration, and braking functions including Audi Driver Assistance Plus, Ford Co-Pilot 360, GM Super Cruise, Hyundai Smart Sense, Subaru EyeSight, Toyota Safety Sense 2.0, and Volkswagen Driver Assistance.
“There needs to be better oversight of these systems, and better standards for collecting, recording, and reporting the data,” says Kelly Funkhouser, manager of vehicle technology at Consumer Reports. “For example, it doesn’t appear that there are any reports from several automakers that we know have systems similar to Autopilot. NHTSA should try to quickly address these standards to ensure these monthly reports are comprehensive and meaningful.”
“We’re very concerned that crashes are being underreported,” says William Wallace, CR’s associate director of safety policy. “It’s critical for NHTSA to collect this information and use it to keep our roads safe. At the same time, NHTSA won’t meet its goals if it receives reports on just a small portion of the total crashes connected to the use of active driving assistance systems. NHTSA should ensure it receives all crash reports that auto companies are able to submit—and that all vehicles are included in the ADAS data collection that can control steering, acceleration, and braking at once.”
The report does not take into account advanced safety features that have become commonplace, such as automatic emergency braking (AEB), but rather focuses on convenience systems that can automate certain driving tasks.
The next step for NHTSA is to consider how and where these systems are being used, says Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics and the founder of the Advanced Vehicle Technology (AVT) consortium. “Automation offers both the potential of benefits and risks. We need to understand the use of these systems and we need to optimize the benefits,” he tells CR.
In a second report, NHTSA also released data on vehicles equipped with automated driving systems (ADS), which can more fully automate the driving task and which are not currently available for consumers to purchase. ADS-equipped vehicles are commonly referred to as “self-driving cars,” although it is unclear when—if ever—vehicles will be capable of fully driving themselves. There have been 130 crashes involving ADS-equipped vehicles between July 2021 and May 15, 2022, with no fatalities and one serious injury. Waymo, Transdev, and Cruise reported the most ADS crashes.
The data released today comes after NHTSA issued a standing general order in June 2021 to collect crash data from auto companies, which applies to all vehicles that can at least partially automate functions, such as steering, acceleration, or braking. For vehicles with active driving assistance systems, companies must report crashes where an injury or property damage is reported, and for ADS-equipped vehicles, all collisions must be reported.
Collins says that this will be the first of monthly reports on active driving assistance and ADS systems, and that the data will be used to help guide research, rulemaking, and enforcement. “Enforcement actions can and have been taken,” she says.
According to Reimer, automakers must work together to solve issues relating to automation. “We want the folks that are not collaborating to get together and work with others,” he says.
Separate from today’s announcement, NHTSA is investigating crashes related to Tesla’s active driving assistance systems, including Autopilot, which began in August 2021 and now has expanded to cover about 830,000 Teslas. The safety agency has so far identified 16 crashes involving a Tesla striking first responder and road maintenance vehicles. Many of these incidents had some form of intervention from the forward collision warning and/or automatic emergency braking systems, but on average, Autopilot aborted vehicle control less than 1 second prior to impact. Of those crashes, NHTSA found that driver attention warnings were issued in just two cases.
Later today, Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ed Markey (D-MA), along with Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) spoke at a press conference about NHTSA’s report, and their shared concerns about Tesla’s Autopilot. They were joined by road safety advocates who spoke in favor of greater government oversight of these emerging technologies.
“The public has a right to know how partially automated systems are performing on our roadways,” said Cathy Chase, president of the safety advocacy group Advocates for Highway Safety. “It’s clear that US road users are unwitting participants in the beta testing.”
Joan Claybrook, who led NHTSA from 1977 to 1981, called on the agency to take action. “We cannot trust automakers to prioritize consumer safety without requirements from the federal government,” she said.
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