In Washington, officials found that a Tesla involved in a crash that killed a motorcyclist near Seattle in April was using Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” system at the time. They discovered this by checking the car’s event-data recorder, according to Capt. Deion Glover from the Washington State Patrol.
The investigation is still ongoing, and it will be up to the Snohomish County Prosecutor to decide if any charges will be filed.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently said that the “Full Self Driving” system should be able to drive without human supervision by the end of the year. He has been promising robotaxis for years but admitted his past predictions were too optimistic.
After the crash, the driver told a police officer he was using Tesla’s Autopilot system and was distracted by his cellphone. The next thing he knew, the car crashed into the motorcycle.
The 56-year-old driver is being investigated for vehicular homicide because he wasn’t paying attention and relied too much on the Autopilot system while distracted.
The motorcyclist, Jeffrey Nissen, 28, was killed in the crash.
This incident is at least the second death in the U.S. involving Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” system. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has reported one death and 75 crashes with the system, though it’s unclear if the system was at fault in the fatality.
Tesla has two driving systems: “Full Self-Driving,” which handles many driving tasks, and Autopilot, which keeps the car in its lane and avoids objects. Sometimes, people mix up these systems.
Tesla says neither system can drive alone yet, and human drivers must always be ready to take control.
The “Full Self-Driving” system is currently being tested by selected Tesla owners and is now called FSD Supervised.
Musk believes that government approval won’t stop the deployment of robotaxis if there is enough data showing that the system is safer than human drivers.
However, Phil Koopman, a safety expert from Carnegie Mellon University, thinks it will be a decade before robotaxis can run without human drivers on most roads. He says there is no proof that the system can be safe without human supervision.
Musk plans to unveil a dedicated robotaxi vehicle on October 10, though it was delayed from August 8 for changes. He has been promoting Tesla as a company focused on robotics and artificial intelligence rather than just cars, attracting investors interested in these technologies.
Musk has been pushing self-driving technology as a major growth area for Tesla since the “Full Self Driving” hardware was introduced in 2015.