Misuse of autopilot, which can control steering, speed and braking, is the subject of investigations by two federal agencies
Summary
- California prosecutors have filed two counts of vehicular manslaughter against the driver of a Tesla on Autopilot who ran a red light, slammed into another car and killed two people in 2019.
- The filing of charges in the California crash could serve notice to drivers who use systems like Autopilot that they cannot rely on them to control vehicles.
- The criminal charges aren’t the first involving an automated driving system, but they are the first to involve a widely used driver technology.
- Tesla has updated its Autopilot software to try to make it harder for drivers to abuse it.
- Nieves-Lopez’s family further asserts that Riad was an unsafe driver, with multiple moving infractions on his record, and couldn’t handle the high-performance Tesla.