Buttigieg says he’s concerned about Tesla’s marketing of the Autopilot system, which is under investigation in connection with crashes that have caused at least 14 deaths.
WASHINGTON — Tesla shouldn’t be calling its partially automated driving system Autopilot because the cars can’t drive themselves, the top U.S. transportation official says.
The probes are part of a larger investigation by the NHTSA into multiple instances of Teslas using Autopilot crashing into parked emergency vehicles that are tending to other crashes. The NHTSA has become more aggressive in pursuing safety problems with Teslas in the past year, announcing multiple recalls and investigations.
In the Wednesday interview, Buttigieg said that self-driving vehicles have enormous potential to reduce the nearly 40,000 U.S. roadway deaths that happen each year, a level that he called unacceptable. But he said the technology has not been proved yet. “It’s far from automatic that it’s going to meet that potential,” he said. “That’s what we’re trying to shape here at the Department of Transportation.
The NHTSA also has opened investigations during the past three years into Teslas braking suddenly for no reason, suspension problems and other issues.
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