Tesla robotaxi incidents draw scrutiny from US safety agency

Miami Herald

5 days ago

U.S. auto safety regulators are looking into incidents where Tesla Inc.'s self-driving robotaxis appeared to violate traffic laws during the company's first day offering paid rides in Austin.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is aware of the incidents that were captured in videos posted on social media and is gathering additional information from the company, the agency said in a statement to Bloomberg. NHTSA officials regularly interact with automakers on safety matters, and it's common for those discussions to stop short of a formal investigation.
"Following an assessment of those reports and other relevant information, NHTSA will take any necessary actions to protect road safety," the agency said on Monday.
Tesla's shares fell as much as 1.4% in postmarket trading after Bloomberg reported NHTSA's discussions with the company. The stock was little changed at 5:33 p.m. in New York.
In one video taken by investor Rob Maurer, who used to host a Tesla podcast, a Model Y he's riding in enters an Austin intersection in a left-turn-only lane. The Tesla hesitates to make the turn, swerves right and proceeds into an unoccupied lane meant for traffic moving in the opposite direction.
A honking horn can be heard as the Tesla re-enters the correct lane over a double-yellow line, which drivers aren't supposed to cross.
In two other posts on X, initial riders in driverless Model Ys shared footage of Teslas speeding. A vehicle carrying Sawyer Merritt, a Tesla investor, reached 35 miles per hour shortly after passing a 30 miles per hour speed limit sign, a video he posted shows.
In a separate live stream from Herbert Ong, a YouTuber with more than 123,000 subscribers, he commented that the vehicle was going faster than the posted limit of 35 miles per hour.
"It's going at 39 right now, which is perfect, right, because I don't want to drive at 35, and it's driving at the same flow of traffic," Ong said. "If everyone else is driving at this speed, you want to be at the same speed."
Representatives for Tesla and the Austin Police Department didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the videos. The automaker recalled more than 362,000 vehicles in February 2023 after NHTSA said its driver-assistance system may allow cars to infringe on local traffic laws.
A spokesman for the city of Austin said it hadn't received any safety incident reports regarding Tesla's robotaxis over the weekend.
NHTSA continues to investigate the performance of Tesla's Full Self-Driving suite of automated driver-assist features. The agency is examining how the system performs at times when visibility is limited by glare, dust or fog.
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk celebrated the start of Tesla's robotaxi operations on Sunday, congratulating employees for what he said was a successful launch. Wall Street analysts also published broadly positive reports, with Barclays analyst Dan Levy writing that the first day of service was "largely uneventful."
Another video posted Sunday captured two riders in a driverless Model Y having trouble after pressing a button on the rear screen of the vehicle to indicate that they wanted the vehicle to pull over.
After the YouTuber who goes by Bearded Tesla Guy pressed the button, a message popped up on the screen indicating that the Model Y would find a safe location to pull over. But rather than execute a pull-over maneuver, the vehicle came to a stop in the middle of the road.
After the riders have a brief discussion with a remote customer-support worker who gets the Tesla going again, it took a second conversation with remote support to get the Model Y to route to the riders' desired drop-off destination.
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