US sends investigators to probe another Michigan Tesla crash

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — For the second time this week, the U.S. government’s road safety agency is sending a team to investigate a Tesla crash in Michigan.

This time, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is sending a special crash investigation team because a Tesla using the company’s Autopilot partially automated driving system crashed into a State Police cruiser with flashing lights along a freeway.

It's another sign that the safety agency under President Joe Biden may be taking a stronger look at regulating driver-assist systems such as Autopilot, as well as self-driving automobiles. Previously, it had taken a hands-off approach to the new technologies, favoring voluntary safety compliance so it wouldn't interfere with the promising safety systems.

In the freeway crash, the police car was parked on Interstate 96 in Eaton County near the state capital of Lansing while a trooper investigated a car-deer crash early Wednesday, WLNS-TV reported. Neither the trooper nor the 22-year-old Tesla driver were injured in the 1:10 a.m. crash, police said. The Tesla's driver was issued citations for failure to move over and driving with a license suspended.

In a statement, NHTSA said it would send the team to investigate “consistent with NHTSA’s vigilant oversight and robust authority over the safety of all motor vehicles and equipment, including automated technologies.”

An email message seeking comment Wednesday night from Tesla was not immediately returned. Tesla has disbanded its press office and has not returned messages for months.

Earlier this week NHTSA sent a special crash investigation team to Detroit for a crash that involved a Tesla that drove beneath a semitrailer. Two people in the Tesla were hurt in the crash last Thursday on the city’s southwest side. WJBK-TV quoted a Detroit police...