The agency has launched its third special investigation into the Tesla crash this year, according to documents provided by representatives of the U.S. Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This is related to a fatal accident involving a 2018 Tesla Model 3 that was hooked up to the vehicle’s Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), but whether it was Autopilot related or some other ADAS feature? It is not clear if it is related to
NHTSA did not release further information about other vehicles involved in the crash or the number of casualties.
This is the third Tesla accident under investigation regarding ADAS functionality. Two other investigations were launched in March. One was another fatality in California that, in addition to being ADAS-related, was also related to the failure to move a stopped vehicle. Another, in North Carolina, did not result in a fatality but “severely injured” a pedestrian.
Last year, NHTSA opened 10 ADAS-related accident investigations, eight of which involved Tesla. Incidents ranged from minor injuries and damages to multiple fatalities.
Over the past few years, Tesla has also come under investigation for ADAS features such as Autopilot and the misleadingly named “fully self-driving” (FSD) advanced driver assistance features. Notably, this led to a massive recall of FSD.
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