NTSB FINDS TESLA DRIVER OVERRODE SELF-DRIVING IN FATAL TEXAS CRASH

The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that a Tesla driver pressed the accelerator to full speed in a crash that killed a 76-year-old woman in Katy, Texas, overriding the vehicle's self-driving software rather than being let down by it. The driver had told police the self-driving feature was active, but the NTSB report issued on Wednesday found he had actually disengaged that system by applying hard pressure to the pedal. The Tesla Model 3 subsequently travelled at highway speeds down a residential street, struck a brick home and killed the woman, who was standing in the front room.

The crash last month occurred as Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk seeks to convince the public that the company's self-driving capabilities are safe. Musk is preparing to convert hundreds of thousands of Teslas already in operation into fully autonomous vehicles and to begin selling two-seater Cybercabs without steering wheels or pedals. Two months before the Texas incident, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced it was escalating its 2024 investigation of the self-driving feature to "engineering analysis" level, which raised the possibility of recalling 3.2 million Tesla vehicles. That probe was initiated following crashes in which the self-driving feature allegedly failed to alert drivers to regain control during fog and poor visibility.

The NHTSA opened an investigation last year into 58 reported incidents of Teslas violating traffic safety laws whilst using self-driving technology, resulting in more than a dozen crashes, fires and nearly two dozen injuries. The agency is separately investigating the Texas house crash, which represents one of 46 "special crash" investigations of Tesla's self-driving or driver-assistance technology over the past decade. In more than a dozen of those 46 crashes, at least one person—a driver, passenger or pedestrian—was killed. Tesla originally branded its driver assistance software as Full Self-Driving, though auto experts and regulators have stated that name is misleading because drivers must maintain attention and remain prepared to take control at any time.