Lack of 'safeguards' in Tesla's Autopilot contributed to fatal crash

The National Traffic Safety Board had stern words for all parties involved in the 2016 crash that killed a man driving a Tesla Model S and put the company’s Autopilot driving technology under scrutiny.

The board issued seven recommendations at the Tuesday hearing, including three for Tesla and every other automaker that offers Level 2 self-driving abilities that suggested manufacturers should not let a product be used, in a manner that is, “inconsistent with its design.” Other recommendations centered around data collection and designs for determining whether drivers are actually paying attention behind the wheel.

“Tesla allowed the driver to use the system outside of the environment for which it was designed, and the system gave far more leeway to the driver to divert his attention to something other than driving,” Board member Christopher Hart said. “The result was a collision that, frankly, should have never happened.”

In the May 7, 2016 crash that killed 40-year-old Joshua Brown in Florida, the NTSB determined Autopilot worked as designed before Brown’s Model S plowed into a truck. A preliminary report issued that July stated his vehicle was going 74 mph at the time of the crash, on a highway with a 65 mph speed limit.

In a statement released Monday, Brown’s family did not fault Tesla for the fatal crash and faulted media reports over excessive speeding and careless behavior.

“We heard numerous times that the car killed our son,” the family said. “That is simply not the case.”

While the board faulted Brown for not paying attention in the seconds before the crash, they noted Autopilot did not do an adequate job of detecting other traffic and did not inform the driver early enough to allow for sufficient reaction time. The board also noted the driver of the truck, who did not make himself available for the investigation, likely had time to see Brown’s Tesla before the crash.

“We appreciate the NTSB’s analysis of last year’s tragic accident and we will evaluate their recommendations as we continue to evolve our technology,” a Tesla spokesperson said in an email to The Verge following the safety agency’s meeting. “We will also continue to be extremely clear with current and potential customers that Autopilot is not a fully self-driving technology and drivers need to remain attentive at all times.”

The NTSB recommendations will be reviewed by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. While Tesla was at the center of the investigation, the NTSB’s findings also called out Audi, BMW, Infiniti, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo and suggested their Level 2 systems come with better warnings and improved monitoring technologies to prevent them from being used irresponsibly by drivers.

“Today’s recommendations, if acted upon,” Hart said, “will help provide system safeguards, make standardized safety data available, and improve the safety of partially automated vehicles and everyone who shares the road with them.”

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