"The autopilot" again involved in an accident. A Tesla that was traveling in semi-autonomous mode on a US road on Tuesday hit a parked police car, a minor accident that occurs while the software "Autopilot" is already under investigation.
****"The (police) officer was not in the vehicle and the Tesla driver suffered only minor injuries," said Laguna Beach police, located south of Los Angeles (west), on his Twitter account, which also shows pictures of the crashed vehicles.
The sedan rolled "in" Autopilot "", a software that Tesla takes care to present as a system of assistance to the driving and not of autonomous driving. Asked by AFP, the manufacturer of high-end electric cars said that "when drivers use Autopilot, (the system) reminds them constantly that it is their responsibility to leave their hands on the wheel and keep control of the vehicle at all times.
Elon Musk complains of media attention
Tesla also said he always said that his software did not make his cars invulnerable and reminded that Autopilot is planned to operate on highway with central separation.
Although Tesla is a small manufacturer, which produces only about 100,000 cars a year, the fame of its electric cars and the media character of his boss Elon Musk, make him regularly make the headlines, especially on the occasion of accidents. In mid-May, a collision involving a Tesla (although we do not know if "Autopilot" was activated) in Utah had reacted Elon Musk, who complained about the disproportionate attention of the media.
Another accident, involving a Tesla with "Autopilot" activated, which caused a death in California in March, is under investigation by the US Transport Regulator (NTSB) and has sparked particularly lively exchanges between Elon Musk and the NTSB, which resulted in Tesla's decision to no longer participate in the investigation.
The NTSB has also opened an investigation into another accident involving a Tesla that killed two people in southeastern Florida. But it relates to the burning of the vehicle battery and not the driver assistance software.