Financial Associated Press, April 27 (editor Shi Zhengcheng) Friday, local timeThewallgameshowThe National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released about Tesla's Autopilot system.ThewallgameshowDonovan's investigation report.

Federal authorities said there was a "critical safety gap" in the system, which led to at least 467 crashes, including 13 fatal accidents and many serious injuries.

(source: NHTSA)

An accident that could have been avoided

The report summarizes the three-year survey. After analyzing 956 accidents, NHTSA concluded that Tesla's design of the Autopilot system led to "foreseeable misuse and avoidable collision". NHTSA stressed that the system "did not fully ensure the driver's attention and proper use."

NHTSA also concluded that there was a "critical safety gap" between the driver's expectation of Tesla's Autopilot system and the real capability of the system, resulting in a series of avoidable accidents.

Tesla's Autopilot is L2-level autopilot, which means that in certain circumstances such as highways, the system can perform vehicle acceleration, braking and steering, but this level of system requires the driver to "always monitor the traffic environment" and be ready to take control. Because there is the word Auto in the name of the product, many Tesla drivers think that the car can drive automatically.

Of the 956 accidents investigated, NHTSA identified this "critical safety gap" as causing 467 accidents. Among the 211 accidents, Tesla's vehicle hit other vehicles or obstacles head-on when it had enough reaction time. This means that accidents can be avoided or greatly reduced if the driver can always keep his attention. There are also 256 accidents related to the driver's misoperation of the Autosteer (automatic steering) system or the misactivation of the system in low friction environments such as rainy days.

In response to the problems exposed by Autopilot, Tesla conducted a recall covering 2 million US Tesla vehicles in December and improved their driver monitoring systems through software upgrades. NHTSA also said it would launch a new investigation into the effectiveness of the software upgrade.

However, in Friday's report, NHTSA also mentioned that Tesla's software upgrade may not be perfect, given that there are still media reports of Autopilot-related accidents.

For example, a Tesla car killed a motorcyclist in an accident in Washington State on April 19 this year. The driver told the police that he was using the Autopilot system when the incident happened.

The fate of the company hangs on autopilot

In a conference call this week, Tesla CEO Musk stressed that if anyone doesn't believe that Tesla can solve the problem of autopilot, he should not be a shareholder of the company. Musk stressed that the company will do this and is continuing to work hard. The company also disclosed earlier that it would release driverless taxis on August 8.

After Musk stressed that Tesla was a "AI Robotics Company", the company's market capitalization rose by $75 billion over the next three days.

After the release of Friday's report, there were also calls for restrictions on the scope of Autopilot in the US market.

Senators Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut issued statements saying that Tesla Autopilot should be restricted to use on roads that suit its design.

Philip Koopman, an associate professor of computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, explained that people have lost their lives because of blind trust in Autopilot, and that even simple measures can improve security. Koopman said, for example, that Tesla can automatically limit the scope of use of Autopilot based on the map data in the vehicle. At the same time, it can also improve the monitoring system to prevent drivers from focusing on their mobile phones when using Autopilot.