Tesla Has No Plans to Disable Autopilot Feature in Its Cars
July 12 2016 - 1:00PM
Dow Jones News
Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk has no plans to
disable the company's Autopilot function in the wake of a May crash
of a Model S electric car using the technology, and the auto maker
instead plans to redouble efforts to educate customers on how the
feature works.
Mr. Musk, in an interview, said the company is planning an
explanatory blog post that highlights how Autopilot works as a
safety system and what drivers are expected to do after they
activate it. "A lot of people don't understand what it is and how
you turn it on," Mr. Musk said.
Mr. Musk, Tesla's co-founder, pushed hard to launch the
Autopilot feature as soon as possible because "we knew we had a
system that on balance would save lives." While many auto makers
offer systems that rely on automatic braking, steering assist or
adaptive cruise control to aid drivers, Tesla's system is widely
regarded as among the more aggressive applications currently on the
market.
The safety of Tesla's Autopilot feature is under scrutiny in the
wake of a May 7 crash in Florida that killed 40-year-old Joshua
Brown, a Model S owner who was using the self-driving system at the
time of the accident. The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration in June said it would investigate the crash, the
first known fatality connected to the Autopilot system.
Tesla called the Autopilot function a beta feature when it
launched it last year and designed it so that the system is off by
default until a driver activates it. "It says beta specifically so
people do not become complacent," Mr. Musk said. He said
disclaimers provided to drivers are "written in super plain
language."
NHTSA on Tuesday disclosed a nine-page letter requesting
documents and details of additional crashes involving Tesla's
Autopilot as part of its ongoing probe. Regulators are homing in on
automatic emergency braking in the investigation.
A spokesman for the agency characterized the request -- made
July 8 -- as a standard step and said "NHTSA has not made any
determination about the presence or absence of a defect in the
subject vehicles."
While limited in its ability to regulate the deployment of a
semi-automated feature, NHTSA routinely intercedes when a car
maker's vehicles pose a potential safety issue. In its letter to
Tesla, the agency included a questionnaire seeking details on
Autopilot's design and engineering, and reports of crashes, deaths,
injuries or other claims related to the technology.
Mr. Brown's crash "calls for an examination of the design and
performance of any driving aids in use," regulators said in an
earlier document opening their probe. Tesla responses to some
questions from the more recent information request are due July 29,
while others are due Aug 26.
A Tesla spokeswoman confirmed the company received the letter
and said it is cooperating.
Write to Mike Ramsey at michael.ramsey@wsj.com and Mike Spector
at mike.spector@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 12, 2016 12:45 ET (16:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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