The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently investigating two fatal July, 2022 crashes involving Teslas plowing into motorcyclists from behind. It was nighttime in both cases, and the crashes were both fatal for the riders. In both cases, NHTSA suspects that the Teslas were operating using the partially automated Autopilot feature.
To be clear, despite its name, neither Tesla’s Autopilot—nor any other semi-automated driving technology available in August, 2022—is capable of driving a vehicle with no assistance or input from humans. Although multiple technology companies are actively working towards the development of such technologies, we simply aren’t at that point yet.
