Tesla announced on Wednesday that it would be recalling over 2 million cars, which is approximately all of the vehicles on the road in the United States, over problems with its Autopilot system. It is one of the key features of the electric car maker. This recall came after a year-long investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which found out that the Autopilot, which helps drivers accelerate, steer, and brake, was involved in a major number of accidents.
This recall is a big blow for the CEO Elon Musk and his company, which was already struggling with issues of production, sales, and other problems recently.
As per the regulators in the United States, the recall would mainly be done to fix all of the issues in how Tesla would make sure that the drivers pay enough attention while using the Autopilot system of the vehicles.
This decision comes after multiple meetings between Tesla and the NHTSA, which started in October, during which the investigators in the agency detailed all of the safety issues that they think need immediate fixing.
Tesla then had an agreement on a voluntary recall that implemented some changes in the software, however, it did not agree with the analysis of NHTSA.
The recall would be followed by a two-year investigation by the agency over the crashes, which also include some fatalities involving vehicles from Tesla, which occurred when the Autopilot system was still engaged.
“Tesla has not provided data that would allow a comparison of Autopilot’s safety on the same kinds of roads. Neither have other carmakers that offer similar systems. Autopilot has been on public roads since 2015. General Motors introduced Super Cruise in 2017, and Ford Motor brought out BlueCruise last year. But publicly available data that reliably measures the safety of these technologies is scant. American drivers — whether using these systems or sharing the road with them — are effectively guinea pigs in an experiment whose results have not yet been revealed.”
Continue Reading:
