US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Jennifer Homendy called on Tesla to change the design of its advanced driver assistance system to ensure that it will not be abused by drivers. This is a letter sent to the company’s CEO Elon Musk. TechCrunch has reviewed the letter, and the NTSB expressed concern in the letter that Tesla has not yet implemented the two safety recommendations made by its agency more than four years ago.
As Tesla is introducing more autonomous driving features through its so-called Fully Automated Driving (FSD) software beta, the urgency to address these safety recommendations has increased. Homendy wrote: Our collision investigation involving your company’s vehicle clearly shows that the possibility of abuse requires changes to the system design to ensure safety. Tesla currently did not respond to a request for comment.
It is worth noting that the NTSB can only make recommendations and has no authority to implement existing laws or formulate policies. Although Homendy expressed her gratitude for cooperating with NTSB investigators after Tesla’s various accidents and incidents reviewed by the NTSB in the letter, she spent most of her time discussing her implementation of the NTSB key safety recommendations for Tesla. Deep concern for inaction.
In 2017, the NTSB made two safety recommendations to the automaker based on its investigation of a fatal car accident in which Joshua Brown was killed when his Tesla Model S crashed into a tractor that traversed him. And Tesla’s advanced driving assistance system, Autopilot, was activated at the time. The agency found that Brown used Autopilot on roads that were not designed for the system, and he had not held the steering wheel for a long time. Autopilot is not a hands-free system.
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The NTSB determined that Tesla’s autopilot system did not effectively monitor and respond to the driver’s interaction with the steering wheel to ensure driver’s participation. The agency recommended that Tesla establish safeguards, limit the autopilot system to the conditions it was designed for, and develop more methods to effectively perceive the driver’s participation. In addition, it reminds the driver of the lack of participation.
Tesla believes that the limitations in the field of operational design do not apply to so-called secondary driver assistance systems such as Autopilot, because the driver determines the acceptable operating environment. Homendy refuted this argument in an email to Musk, pointing out that the agency’s car accident investigation has clearly shown that the possibility of abuse requires changes to the system design to ensure safety.
Homendy also pointed out that the agency has issued recommendations to five other automakers that have vehicles with secondary autonomous driving systems, asking them to apply methods to attract and remind drivers. According to Homendy’s letter to Musk, all five manufacturers responded to the NTSB and described actions they plan to take or are taking to better monitor driver participation. She wrote: Tesla is the only (automotive) manufacturer that has not formally responded to our suggestions.