US inspector opens investigation after Tesla crashes into Texas home, kills woman | Automotive Industry

Highway safety officials are investigating a crash involving a Model 3 that is said to be working on a self-driving car.

US highway safety officials are investigating after a Tesla self-driving car crashed into a home in Texas, killing a 76-year-old woman inside.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Monday it has opened an investigation into what happened on June 19, when a Tesla Model 3 crashed into a house near Houston.

Recommended Articles

list of 4 itemsend of series

“NHTSA is launching a Special Investigation into this accident,” a spokesman for the regulator said in a brief statement provided to Al Jazeera.

Tesla, the largest US electric car maker, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Harris County Texas Sheriff’s Office said last week that the driver told police he was using the Model 3’s steering wheel when his car left the road and hit the house.

Police said the driver did not appear to be intoxicated and cooperated with investigators after the crash.

Writing on X, Tesla CEO Elon Musk denied reports that the car was driving itself at the time of the crash.

“FSD drives very slowly on local roads and this was a high speed accident!” Musk said, referring to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving mode.

Tesla’s vice president of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, also denied that the company’s technology was at fault, writing on the X that the driver overcame the system by pressing on the accelerator.

“They reached a speed of 73 mph (117km/h) at the time of the accident, and they pressed the accelerator even after the accident,” said Ellwamy.

Elluswamy did not provide a source for his version of the incident.

Musk, the world’s richest man and first billionaire, has pushed self-driving technology as a key part of Tesla’s long-term strategy, predicting that 90 percent of all cars in the US will be autonomous within a decade.

Although Tesla markets its Self-Driving system as a selling point for its cars, its current technology is not autonomous, requiring constant human supervision.

Tesla’s self-driving system has come under intense scrutiny in recent years amid reports of serious crashes involving the technology.

In October, the NHTSA opened an investigation to determine the “frequency, frequency, and safety impact” of the technology following 58 reported incidents of Tesla vehicles breaking red lights or entering oncoming traffic.

In March, the regulator expanded an investigation into autonomous driving when visibility is impaired due to fog, sunlight or other obstructions.

Tesla has denied that its self-driving technology poses a risk to drivers and pedestrians, saying it is 10 times safer than human drivers.