DETROIT — The U.S. government’s road safety agency is again investigating Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” system, this time after getting reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian.
The National Highway Safety Administration says in documents that it opened the probe on Thursday after the company reported four crashes after Teslas entered areas of low visibility including sun glare, fog, and airborne dust.
In addition to the pedestrian’s death, another crash involved an injury, the agency said.
In Washington state, the driver of a Tesla that hit and killed a motorcyclist in Monroe in April was using the company’s “Full Self Driving” system at the time of the crash, according to the Washington State Patrol. However, low visibility wasn’t a factor in the crash.
The driver told a trooper that he was using Tesla’s Autopilot system and looked at his cellphone while the Tesla was moving.
“The next thing he knew there was a bang and the vehicle lurched forward as it accelerated and collided with the motorcycle in front of him,” the trooper wrote in a probable-cause document.
The 56-year-old driver was arrested for investigation of vehicular homicide “based on the admitted inattention to driving, while on Autopilot mode, and the distraction of the cell phone while moving forward, putting trust in the machine to drive for him,” the affidavit said.
Now, investigators will look into the ability of “Full Self-Driving” to “detect and respond appropriately to reduced roadway visibility conditions, and if so, the contributing circumstances for these crashes.”
The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.
A message was left early Friday seeking comment from Tesla, which has repeatedly said the system cannot drive itself and human drivers must be ready to intervene at all times.