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发帖数: 2469 | 1 Tesla Subpoenas May Presage Formal Probe, Former Official Says
Ryan Beene, Gabrielle Coppola and Alan Levin
Ryan Beene, Gabrielle Coppola and Alan Levin
BloombergAugust 7, 2019, 6:17 PM EDT
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Tesla Subpoenas May Presage Formal Probe, Former Official Says
(Bloomberg) -- Freshly disclosed records suggest the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration may be preparing a formal investigation into
Tesla Inc.’s driver-assistance system Autopilot, a former agency official
said.
The agency has issued at least five subpoenas since April 2018 for
information about Tesla vehicle crashes, according to NHTSA correspondence
with the electric-car manufacturer released Tuesday by Plainsite. The legal
transparency group obtained the documents through a public records request
for communications regarding Autopilot.
NHTSA also asked Tesla to provide results of internal tests on a sub-
component of the Model 3 sedan’s automatic emergency braking system, and
sales figures of vehicles sold with and without Autopilot since mid-2016,
among other requests, according to the records.
“I think what this shows is that NHTSA has concerns about Autopilot
performance,” Frank Borris, a former director of the Office of Defects
Investigation at NHTSA, said after reviewing the documents. He said the
subpoenas could mean the agency “is gathering information that would be
supportive of a formal investigation.”
NHTSA doesn’t have an active defect probe into Tesla, and the agency may
not open one. The regulator declined to comment directly on whether it will,
saying in an emailed statement that it’s “committed to rigorous and
appropriate safety oversight of the industry and encourages any potential
safety issue be reported to NHTSA.”
“Any regulator like NHTSA would be interested in new vehicle technologies
and how they make our highways safer,” Tesla said in an emailed statement.
“We routinely share information with the agency while also balancing the
need to protect customer privacy. Tesla has required subpoenas when customer
information is requested in order to protect the privacy of our customers.”
‘Not Normal’
While Tesla described the documents as “business as usual,” Borris said
use of subpoenas is atypical and suggests a heightened degree of interest in
Autopilot. He was speaking based on his past experience at the regulator
and doesn’t have specific knowledge of current agency matters.
“The fact that they’ve had to issue subpoenas about it indicates that
NHTSA hasn’t been satisfied by Tesla’s responses, because that’s just not
normal,” said Borris, who’s now an auto-safety consultant.
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has staunchly defended Autopilot,
saying the system improves safety and monitors more of the road than a human
can do alone. Tesla releases quarterly data that it says demonstrates that
the technology improves safety.
In a March 2018 blog post about the fatal crash involving a Model X in
California, Tesla acknowledged Autopilot was engaged but said that the
driver’s hands weren’t detected on the wheel for six seconds prior to the
collision. The company said Autopilot doesn’t prevent all accidents but
reduces the likelihood that they will occur.
“No one knows about the accidents that didn’t happen, only the ones that
did,” Tesla said in the blog post. “The consequences of the public not
using Autopilot, because of an inaccurate belief that it is less safe, would
be extremely severe.”
High-Profile Crashes
NHTSA sent the subpoenas and other requests amid a series of highly
publicized Tesla crashes dating back to early 2018 that attracted scrutiny
from federal agencies and safety advocates alike.
Two subpoenas were issued March 11, according to the records, with one
seeking information and data about a Tesla that crashed just 10 days prior
in Delray Beach, Florida, where a Model 3 driver was killed when the car
slammed into the side of a semi-truck with Autopilot engaged.
NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board have investigated several
Tesla crashes in recent years, and at times NTSB has clashed with company
officials.
The safety board removed Tesla from its regular participation in its probe
of the Model X crash in March 2018, saying the company disclosed information
about the case in spite of an agreement not to do so while the probe was
underway.
Tesla said in a statement at the time it was withdrawing from its status as
a party in the investigation because NTSB rules prohibited it from being
transparent. The company vowed to continue providing technical data to the
safety board.
The NTSB in 2017 found that Tesla’s Autopilot design, which allowed drivers
to engage it on roads for which it wasn’t designed, contributed to the
cause of a fatal crash involving a Model S in Florida in 2016.
Close Monitoring
The records released this week show that NHTSA has continued to closely
monitor Tesla’s Autopilot technology after the agency in early 2017 closed
an earlier probe into the system that found no defect.
In May, Consumer Reports called for the agency to open up another inquiry.
The magazine published a study of automated driving systems in October that
found Tesla’s Autopilot performed best, but it knocked the company for
allowing the system to be used in potentially dangerous environments like
hilly or winding roads. It also lagged peers in alerting drivers to pay
attention: General Motors Co.’s Super Cruise feature took four seconds to
warn a driver to pay attention, while Autopilot waited 24 seconds.
Data on driver engagement that is included in Tesla’s communications with
NHTSA point to a similar issue, said David Friedman, a former deputy
administrator at NHTSA during the Obama administration, who’s now vice
president of advocacy at Consumer Reports.
“Data like this show the system does not appear to be able to keep the
driver engaged, and it’s one company, not the others in the space,” he
said. “To me, that raises real red flags about a possible defect.”
--With assistance from Dana Hull. |
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