Musk Unsure Why NHTSA Is Probing Tesla on Fatal Autonomous Vehicle Crash
Tesla “cannot sneeze without there being a national headline” about autonomous vehicles, said CEO Elon Musk in an earnings Q&A. He was asked whether the company, in order to build public support for self-driving cars, plans to be more “transparent”…
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in its reporting of autonomous-vehicle incidents, such as the highly publicized fatal accident in Florida involving a Tesla Model S in autopilot mode (see 1607010052). Tesla as a standard practice shares its autonomous-vehicle incident data with regulators “as soon as we know it,” as it did in the Florida fatality “certainly weeks before” the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration opened a formal probe into the crash, he said. “We're not totally clear on why they opened the investigation, because they actually had all the information before they made a formal investigation.” Tesla thinks “there wasn't really anything more to learn” from opening a formal probe, he said. NHTSA representatives didn’t comment Thursday. "Full autonomy is going to come a hell of a lot faster than anyone thinks it will,” said Musk. It’s just “really a software limitation” that’s standing in the way of developing cars with “full autonomy,” Musk said.