Self-driving car systems were involved in 400 crashes since 2021 - 273 were Teslas
Federal regulators found that self-driving AI systems were involved in almost 400 car crashes in the last year, including Teslas, which accounted for 70 per cent of the accidents.
The New York Times reports that Wednesday the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shared the findings of a large-scale data collection and analysis effort to better understand the efficacy and safety of self driving systems on the road today.
According to the report, between 1 July of last year and 15 May of this year, there were 392 accidents involving self-driving technologies. In those accidents, six people were killed and five were seriously injured.
Of those 392, Tesla’s Autopilot, Full Self Driving mode, or at least a component of its self-driving tech was active in 273 of those crashes.
Self-driving systems — whether it be a nearly-full autopilot mode that allows hands-free driving or simply parallel parking assistance — become more prevalent in US vehicles with each passing year. Their growing presence on US roads prompted the regulators to examine their safety record.
“These technologies hold great promise to improve safety, but we need to understand how these vehicles are performing in real-world situations,” Dr Steven Cliff, the NHTSA's administrator, said. “This will help our investigators quickly identify potential defect trends that emerge.”
Dr Cliff spoke wih reporters Wednesday about the agency’s findings, but warned not to draw too many conclusions from the numbers just yet. He noted that the data does not include information that could help further contextualise the data, like how many self-driving cars are in operation per manufacturer.
Ford, GM, and other manufacturers have been rolling out new vehicle models that incorporate self-driving technology, but it is unclear how many of those kinds of vehicles are actually on the road. Tesla has 830,000 cars in circulation with Autopilot functionality, potentially explaning why it accounts for nearly 70 per cent of the crashes recorded.
“The data may raise more questions than they answer,” Dr Cliff said.
He said the agency would continue to collect data to better understand the technology and its potential hazards.
