Hyperdrive

Tesla Autopilot Is Found Partly to Blame for 2018 Freeway Crash

Car on Autopilot struck parked fire truck near Los Angeles
Report is second concluded by NTSB on Tesla automation

A Tesla Inc. Supercharger station at night.
Photographer: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg

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By Alan Levin and Ryan Beene

September 4, 2019 at 4:28 PM UTC

Updated on

September 4, 2019 at 5:47 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

U.S. transportation safety investigators found Tesla Inc.’s design of its automated driver-assist system was partly to blame for a crash in which an inattentive driver slammed into a fire truck parked on a freeway near Los Angeles in 2018.

The National Transportation Safety Board also cited the driver’s failure to stop for the truck, which was parked with its emergency lights on, in the Jan. 22, 2018, collision, which caused no injuries. The driver’s actions were “due to inattention and overreliance on the vehicle’s advanced driver assistance system,” the NTSB said in a final report released Wednesday.