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Tesla to fix software in two million cars to improve Autopilot system safeguards

Monitoring alerts ‘may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse’, say US regulators

Tesla recall: US regulators have been investigating Elon Musk’s electric car group for more than two years to assess whether its Autopilot system ensures drivers pay attention to the road when the vehicle is steering itself. Photograph: David Zalubowski/AP

Peter Campbell
Wed Dec 13 2023 - 16:15

Tesla will fix software for more than two million cars to improve safeguards in its Autopilot driver-assistance system after an investigation by US safety regulators following a series of fatal accidents.

The system’s monitoring and warning alerts “may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse”, said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) which ordered a recall.

The regulator has been investigating Elon Musk’s electric car group for more than two years to assess whether the system ensures drivers pay attention to the road when the vehicle is steering itself.

This means keeping their hands on the steering wheel and eyes on the road while the system, which allows a car to steer when in marked lanes and accelerate and brake, is active.

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The Californian carmaker now plans to fix software for all of its Model X, 3 and Y cars and many of its Model S cars in the US that were fitted with the system, the NHTSA said.

The regulator will keep its investigation open in order to monitor the effectiveness of Tesla’s fix, which the NHTSA said will include “additional controls and alerts to make sure the driver adheres to their continuous driving responsibility” when the system is in operation.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Driver monitoring is considered an essential way to ensure motorists are still paying attention, even when a vehicle is steering and accelerating itself.

There have been several fatalities involving Tesla’s technology where drivers were not engaged, while in the early days of its Autopilot system some drivers filmed themselves in the back seats while the car was steering.

The company has been criticised for the marketing of the technology, with the name Autopilot suggesting greater control than the vehicle has.

It also has a more advanced system, which it calls Full Self Driving. A version of this, which Tesla says is still in testing or “beta” mode, has been rolled out to some customers who pay extra.

Earlier this year, the group was forced to make changes to this system after the NHTSA found it allowed the cars to break the speed limit, ignore stop signs or drive dangerously across intersections.

Mr Musk has frequently made promises over the abilities of its driving systems in the past, insisting several times that a car that could drive itself was not far away.

He told a Financial Times summit in May 2022 that the company was close to producing a system that was safer than a human driver, adding that it could be finished this year. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023

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