Tesla driver says he was asleep on Full Self-Driving when he hit California Highway Patrol cars
A Tesla driver said he was asleep and using Full Self-Driving when his car struck two California Highway Patrol vehicles on Interstate 80, seriously injuring two officers, according to The Verge.
Video released by the CHP shows the Tesla speeding past flares, cones and emergency lights set up where officers were working an earlier crash, then ramming into the back of a parked patrol vehicle. The two officers were taken to a hospital with serious injuries.
"Despite its name, full self-driving is not fully autonomous," the CHP said, according to The Verge. "Technology does not relieve drivers of their responsibility to safely operate their vehicles."
The collision adds to a record federal regulators have been examining for years. After numerous crashes in which Teslas struck parked emergency vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into the company's Autopilot software in 2021. The agency later issued a report finding that the driver-assist features did not do enough to keep drivers engaged, and it linked them to hundreds of crashes and dozens of deaths in cases where neither the system nor the driver responded.
Tesla released an update for Autopilot in 2023 that added more controls and alerts intended to prompt drivers to keep full control of the car when Autosteer is enabled. NHTSA then opened another investigation into whether those changes went far enough.
The driver's account of being asleep behind the wheel has not been independently confirmed, and it was not immediately clear from the report whether any charges had been filed or whether the investigation into the crash was continuing.