U.S. agency to open probe into fatal Florida Tesla crash

• The NHTSA has opened a special inquiry into a fatal Tesla crash in Florida.
• The NTSB is already looking into 830,000 Tesla vehicles equipped with Autopilot.
• Since 2016, NHTSA has started 36 special crash investigations involving Tesla Inc. vehicles.

The 66-year-old Tesla driver and the 67-year-old passenger died in a crash in Florida on Wednesday. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced on Friday that it will launch a special inquiry into the incident.

The Florida Highway Patrol reported that a 2015 Tesla rear-ended a parked tractor-trailer near Gainesville at a rest stop off Interstate 75. The Lompoc, California natives in the Tesla were both confirmed deceased at the scene. It was unclear whether Autopilot was in operation, according to a patrol spokeswoman.

On Thursday, the NHTSA announced that it has begun a special investigation into a deadly pedestrian accident in California involving a 2018 Tesla Model 3, which was thought to have been using an advanced driver assistance system.

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Since 2016, the NHTSA has started 36 special crash investigations involving Tesla Inc. (TSLA.O) vehicles, including the crash in California, where advanced driver aid systems like Autopilot were allegedly deployed.

17 collision fatalities in total, including the Florida crash, have been documented in those Tesla investigations.

NHTSA routinely opens more than 100 special crash investigations each year on new technology and other possible car safety problems, which have in the past, for example, assisted in the development of air bag safety regulations.

A request for comment was not answered by Tesla, which has shut down its press department.

The Florida crash is comparable to a number of crashes that NHTSA is looking at.

Before it could request a recall, the NHTSA had to upgrade its defect investigation into 830,000 Tesla vehicles equipped with Autopilot in June.

After around a dozen crashes in which Tesla vehicles collided with stopped emergency vehicles, the NHTSA began a preliminary study to evaluate the effectiveness of the system in 765,000 vehicles. Last month, the agency reported that it had detected six further crashes.

Steven Cliff, the administrator of NHTSA, stated to Reuters on Wednesday that he wants to wrap up the probe into Tesla Autopilot “I want to get it right, but I also want to move as rapidly as we can. We have a lot of information to sort through.”

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