NTSB blames drivers, Tesla, lax regulations in Florida crash

NTSB blames drivers, Tesla, lax regulations in Florida crash

SFGate

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The National Transportation Safety Board says two drivers, Tesla and lax regulation of new partially automated driving systems are to blame for a fatal 2019 crash in Florida involving a Tesla on Autopilot.

The NTSB, in a report issued Thursday, said the design of the Autopilot system contributed to the crash because it allowed the Tesla driver to avoid paying attention. Tesla also failed to limit where Autopilot can be used, allowing drivers to activate it in areas it wasn’t designed for, the report said.

The board, which investigates crashes and makes safety recommendations, also took the unusual step of accusing the government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of contributing to the crash. The agency failed to make sure automakers put safeguards in place to limit use of electronic driving systems to areas where they are designed to work, the report said.

The report was another case of sparring between the two federal agencies over regulating new electronic driver-assist technology, which NHTSA so far has been reluctant to do.

The March 1, 2019, crash in Delray Beach, Fla., killed the 50-year-old driver of a Tesla Model 3. The car was traveling 69 mph when neither the driver nor the Autopilot system braked or tried to avoid a tractor-trailer that was crossing in its path on U.S. 441 around 6:17 a.m. The car struck the trailer, whose driver the report cited for turning in front of the Tesla. The trailer sheared off the Tesla’s roof. The truck driver was not hurt.

“The Delray Beach investigation marks the third fatal vehicle crash we have investigated where a driver’s overreliance on Tesla’s Autopilot and the operational design of Tesla’s Autopilot have led to tragic consequences,” NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said in a statement.

At a hearing last month on a California fatal crash,...

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