In the United States, all operators of automated vehicle control systems are required to regularly report the results of their operations to NHTSA. This is a federal agency responsible for monitoring grain by verifying that the rules of road safety are well respected by all players in the sector. However, it turns out that a new document just published by the institution reports that a well-known manufacturer has seen its cars pinned for having eliminated fatal accidents very recently: Tesla.
The very responsibilities of functionality Automatic pilot remain unclear. It happens that humans take part in the last chance control game, being able to take control of the artificial intelligence if necessary. Moreover, few are still today those who manage to market completely driverless solutions to the general public. Waymo, a subsidiary of Google, offers its own smart taxi application across the Atlantic, but it took many years to get there.
What models are involved?
Looking at the names of the cars involved in these fatal accidents, we see that one of them is the Model 3 from Tesla, the most popular unit of the group due to its better quality/price ratio than a Model S for example. This version, available from 53,490 euros in France, has five doors and a range of up to more than six hundred kilometers on a single charge for a 0 to 100 km / h in just 3.3 seconds. The improved Autopilot option costs 3,800 euros, to change lanes even automatically and park the way.
©Tesla
With this it is also a Y-model of the same brand which caused a victim. With an endurance of less than 500 km, this model has at least 2,100 liters of loading capacity and yet obtained five stars in the Euro NCAP safety test. But the test bench will soon be entitled to a major update, which could redefine the rules of the game…
No bad surprise in France
For the moment, France remains fairly well protected against such incidents. It is indeed always forbidden to let go of the steering wheel for too long. If the driver is distracted, a vibration encourages him to take control quickly.
But the European Union offers much more leeway to manufacturers, so that member states are also making progress in their legislation. No one knows what tomorrow will bring.