Tesla continues to be in the crosshairs of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as multiple outlets are reporting the government has opened two new investigations into crashes involving the company’s vehicles.
The investigations appear to be focused on driver assistance systems and semi-autonomous driving technology as one of them involves the Thanksgiving day crash in San Francisco.
As we recently reported, a 2021 Tesla Model S was traveling on the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge at 55 mph (89 km/h) when it suddenly slowed down to 20 mph (32 km/h) while performing a lane change. This led to an eight car pileup, which resulted in nine people suffering minor injuries.
Also: Tesla Driver Who Caused Eight-Car Pileup Blames Full Self-Driving Mode Malfunction
The driver blamed the incident on Tesla’s full self-driving mode (FSD), but authorities weren’t immediately able to verify that. Now, it appears the NHTSA will examine whether or not that was the case.
Besides the Thanksgiving crash, the government will look into a collision involving a 2020 Model 3. Less is known about that incident, but Reuters is reporting it occurred in Ohio and resulted in a minor injury.
While the investigations are just getting underway, CNBC says the NHTSA is “looking into at least 41 crashes involving Tesla vehicles where automated features such as automatic emergency braking, or more extensive driver assistance system features included in Autopilot, FSD and FSD Beta were involved.” These reportedly resulted in 14 fatalities.
There’s no word on whether or not technology was to blame for the latest incidents, but previous government investigations have cast both drivers and Tesla in a negative light. In particular, some owners have been overly reliant on semi-autonomous driving technology and haven’t been paying attention to the road ahead.
