The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has opened multiple investigations into fatal Tesla crashes involving its Autopilot system.
Tesla is getting ready to roll out a sweeping update for its “Full Self-Driving” mode that would extend the feature’s beta testing to more customers and areas. But before it does, the automaker needs to address some “basic safety issues,” said Jennifer Homendy, head of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal. Full Self-Driving is a more advanced version of Tesla’s assisted driving system designed for navigating highways, Autopilot. Despite their namesakes, neither version of Tesla’s driver-assistance software is fully autonomous, and Tesla warns that a human driver must remain alert at the wheel and ready to take over at any moment. Homendy called it “misleading and irresponsible” for Tesla to advertise its software as “full self-driving,” adding that the company has “clearly misled numerous people to misuse and abuse technology.
