Skip to main content

Tesla won't disable Autopilot, will work on education instead, Musk says

tesla wont disable autopilot model s update 004
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Tesla won’t disable its Autopilot autonomous-driving system in the face of an ongoing National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) into a fatal May 7 crash involving a Model S driving with the system activated. Instead, the company plans to redouble efforts to educate consumers about Autopilot’s limitations.

The carmaker is planning an explanatory blog post on how Autopilot works and what drivers are expected to do once it’s activated, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal (subscription required). Musk still believes that Autopilot will ultimately enhance safety, and that lack of consumer education is the issue, not the system itself.

Recommended Videos

Since Autopilot was launched last October, Musk has maintained that the system has limited capabilities, and that drivers are ultimately responsible for controlling vehicles even when it is engaged. Tesla still considers Autopilot to be in a public beta testing stage, and warns drivers to remain alert and be ready to take over at any time.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Read more: Does Tesla have blood on its hands after fatal Autopilot crash?

The May 7 crash in Florida that killed 40-year-old Joshua Brown involved a Model S colliding with a tractor trailer. In a blog post responding to the crash, Tesla said both Autopilot and Brown failed to see the white side of the trailer against a bright sky. On Tuesday, the NHTSA released a letter requesting additional information from Tesla, including the carmaker’s own reconstruction of the crash, engineering details on Autopilot, and records of other crashes.

Since news of the fatal crash broke, reports of two other crashes involving Autopilot have surfaced, one in Montana and another in Pennsylvania. In both cases, Model X SUVs purportedly using Autopilot crashed into highway guardrails. Tesla now says it could not recover data from the Model X in the Pennsylvania crash, but that the SUV in the Montana crash was on Autopilot, and the driver may have taken his hands off the steering wheel. Autopilot prompts drivers to periodically place their hands on the wheel when it is operating.

In addition, Tesla may face a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe related to the fatal Florida crash. Securities rules may have required the company to report the incident to its investors, although Tesla denies that it broke any laws by not reporting the crash immediately.

Stephen Edelstein
Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…
Here’s why your old CPU cooler won’t work with next-gen Intel processors
CPU cooler going on top of CPU.

Leaked plans for Intel's upcoming LGA1700 socket show a radical departure from the design the company has used for the past several generations. The new V0 socket design isn't compatible with currently available CPU coolers, even with a bracket.

The V0 socket will replace the H5 socket Intel is currently using for Rocket Lake processors. Although the pin layout usually changes between generations -- LGA1151 to LGA1200, and so on -- Intel has stuck with a familiar design for the socket itself. That has allowed CPU cooler manufacturers to offer the same mounting solution for Intel processors for over a decade.

Read more
Tesla’s Autopilot can be easily tricked, engineers find
Tesla emblem preview image

Engineers at Consumer Reports (CR) said this week they were able to "easily" trick Tesla’s Autopilot system into thinking someone was in the driver’s seat, meaning the car could be driven without anyone behind the wheel.

CR engineers performed the demonstration on a private road using a Tesla Model Y vehicle. The non-profit consumer organization said it decided to conduct the test after hearing about Saturday’s fatal crash in Spring, Texas, involving a Tesla Model S that apparently had no one behind the wheel.

Read more
Elon Musk suggests Autopilot was off in fatal Texas Tesla crash
elon musk stylized image

Tesla chief Elon Musk has said that the automaker’s early investigations suggest the Model S in the fatal accident in Texas at the weekend didn’t have Autopilot enabled.

Saturday's crash in Spring, just north of Houston, killed two men aged 59 and 69 when the vehicle hit a tree and burst into flames. Police at the scene said one person was found in the front passenger seat while the other was in a rear seat, indicating that the car may have been in Autopilot or Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode when the accident occurred. The other possibility is that the driver was thrown from the driver’s seat, or moved out of it, around the time of the impact.

Read more