Wednesday morning, Tesla announced a recall of more than two million vehicles over concerns its “Autopilot” system can be misused by drivers. This announcement comes as part of a two-year investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) into crashes by Tesla vehicles. As you may remember over the last few years, there have been high-profile incidents where Teslas, believed to be in Autopilot mode, collided with motorcycles, killing the motorcyclist.
In the recall notice NHTSA said, the investigation found Autopilot’s method of making sure that drivers are paying attention can be inadequate and can lead to “foreseeable misuse of the system.” The stated objective of the recall is to “Incorporate additional controls and alerts to those already existing on affected vehicles to further encourage the driver to adhere to their continuous driving responsibility whenever Autosteer is engaged, which includes keeping their hands on the steering wheel and paying attention to the roadway.”
This recent recall announcement is a good time to remind ourselves what former NHTSA Senior Safety Advisor Missy Cummings said this summer, “It’s very dangerous for motorcycles to be around Teslas.”
The MRF will continue fighting to ensure the safety of bikers is not ignored in the push to deploy this recent technology on our nation’s roadways.
As always, Ride Safe and Ride Free
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