Investigators believe Tesla is acting “irresponsible” for calling its high-end Autopilot system “full self-driving.”
According to a Wall Street Journal report, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy told the outlet that Tesla “has clearly misled numerous people to misuse and abuse the technology.”
The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation.
Autopilot is a suite of driver assistance features that comes standard with the purchase of a new car or can be purchased after delivery. It offers features like autosteer and traffic-aware cruise control. The FSD package can perform tasks like actively guiding a car from a highway’s on-ramp to off-ramp, including suggesting lane changes, navigating interchanges, automatically engaging the turn signal and taking the correct exit. It can also identify stop signs and traffic lights and automatically slows a car to a stop on approach, among other features.
“Basic safety issues have to be addressed before they then expand it to other city streets and other areas,” Homendy said in an interview with WSJ.
Tesla is currently being investigated after several reports of crashes with emergency vehicles while Autopilot is engaged.
The V10 update for FSD was well-received, with some reviewers showing their cars navigating through areas that it was previously unable to complete without driver intervention. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has said the next version will be another noticeable step in performance for the system. That version is expected later this month.