DETROIT — Federal highway safety investigators in the United States want Tesla to tell them how and why it developed the “patch” in the review of more than two million vehicles equipped with the company’s partially automated Autopilot system.
Investigators at the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have concerns about whether the fix worked, because Tesla has reported 20 crashes since it shipped the “patch” as a software update. in December.
In a letter to Tesla posted on the agency’s website Tuesday, researchers wrote that they couldn’t find a difference between warnings to drivers to pay attention before and after the new software was shipped.
Tesla studies warnings from federal regulators
The agency said it will study whether the warnings are adequate, especially when the camera monitoring the driver is covered.
The agency sought information about how Tesla developed the patch and focused on how it used human behavior to test the effectiveness of the fix.
The 18-page letter asks how Tesla used behavioral sciences when designing Autopilot, as well as the company’s position on the importance of evaluating human factors.
It also asks Tesla to identify all positions related to human behavior evaluation and the qualifications of those workers. And ask Tesla if those positions still exist.
Tesla is in the process of laying off about 10% of its workforce, about 14,000 people, in an effort to reduce expenses to deal with a decline in its global sales. The firm’s CEO, Elon Musk, has told Wall Street that the firm is more of an artificial intelligence and robotics company than an automotive one.
NHTSA said it would review the “prominence and scope” of Autopilot controls to correct misuse, confusion and their employment in areas the system is not designed to handle.
Concerns about the Autopilot system
He also said that Tesla has stated that owners can decide not to apply parts of the patch, and that it allows drivers to override some aspects of the update.
Safety activists have long expressed concern that Autopilot, which can keep a vehicle in its lane and at a distance from objects in front of it, was not designed to operate on roads other than limited-access highways.
Tesla tells owners that despite its name, the system cannot drive on its own and that drivers should be prepared to intervene at any time.
Source: With information from AFP.
