NTSB faults Tesla Autopilot, bagel-eating driver for crash

WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Wednesday cited driver errors and the design of Tesla's Autopilot as the probable cause of a January 2018 crash of a Model S into a parked fire truck on a highway in California.

The safety board, which previously criticized Tesla's driver assistance system Autopilot after a 2016 fatal crash in Florida, said that the system's design "permitted the driver to disengage from the driving task" in the Culver City, California, crash. The NTSB said on Tuesday that Autopilot allowed the driver to keep his hands off the wheel for the vast majority of the nearly 14 minutes of the trip.

The fire truck was unoccupied, and the driver was not injured in the incident. The NTSB cited the driver's "inattention and over-reliance" on the advanced driver assistance system.

'A vehicle that enables a driver to not pay attention, or fall asleep, while accelerating into a parked fire truck is defective and dangerous.'

Tesla's Autopilot was engaged during at least three fatal U.S. crashes, including one involving a 2018 Model 3 in Delray Beach, Florida, and a crash in Mountain View, California, of a Model X. Both incidents, which occurred in March 2018, remain under investigation by the NTSB and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The NTSB makes safety recommendations, while the NHTSA can order a recall if it deems a defect poses an unreasonable risk to safety.

The Center for Auto Safety, a consumer watchdog group, said on Wednesday the NTSB report should prompt NHTSA to "do its job and recall these vehicles. ... A vehicle that enables a driver to not pay attention, or fall asleep, while accelerating into a parked fire truck is defective and dangerous."

NHTSA did not immediately comment.

Tesla said in an emailed statement that since the 2018 crash "we have made updates to our system including adjusting the time intervals between hands-on warnings and the conditions under which they’re activated."

The company added that Tesla owners have driven billions of miles with Autopilot engaged and says its data "indicates that drivers using Autopilot remain safer than those operating without assistance."

The crashes raised questions about the driver-assistance system’s ability to detect hazards and sparked safety concerns about systems that can perform driving tasks for extended stretches of time with little or no human intervention, but which cannot completely replace human drivers.

'I was having a coffee and a bagel. And all I remember, that truck, and then I just saw the boom in my face and that was it.'

After the fatal 2016 Florida crash, NTSB asked six automakers with advanced driver assistance systems — Tesla, Volkswagen AG, BMW AG, Nissan, Daimler AG and Volvo —  to "develop applications to more effectively sense the driver's level of engagement and alert the driver when engagement is lacking while automated vehicle control systems are in use."

"All manufacturers except Tesla have responded to the NTSB explaining their current systems and their efforts to reduce misuse and keep drivers engaged," the NTSB said.

Consumer groups have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the Autopilot name is deceptive to consumers, as it implies it's a fully autonomous driving system, which it is not. While Tesla drivers say they are able to avoid holding the steering wheel for extended periods while using Autopilot, Tesla advises drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and pay attention while using the system.

The 2014 Model S Autopilot system was engaged continuously for the final 13 minutes 48 seconds of the January 2018 trip and the driver kept his hands off the wheel for all but 51 seconds of the final drive segment and received numerous alerts to place his hands back on the wheel, the NTSB said. Had he been paying close attention "he could have taken evasive action to avoid or mitigate the collision."

In NTSB documents first released Tuesday, the driver said "I was having a coffee and a bagel. And all I remember, that truck, and then I just saw the boom in my face and that was it."