Spate of Self-Driving Probes Points to US Setting Higher Safety Bar
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened investigations into Waymo, Zoox and Ford, and taken Tesla to task over its driver-assist system.
A Tesla employee demonstrating Autopilot when the company first introduced the system in 2015. The feature is intended for use by fully attentive drivers who keep their hands on the wheel.
Photographer: Bloomberg/BloombergCompanies offering driver-assistance systems and developing autonomous vehicles are entering a new phase of more exacting oversight, with the top US auto-safety regulator investigating four of the industry’s most prominent companies in rapid-fire fashion.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration initiated two probes just this week into Waymo and Zoox, the driverless technology subsidiaries of Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. While the circumstances are different for Tesla Inc. and Ford Motor Co. — their vehicles offer driver-support systems that require constant supervision — what the companies share in common are car crashes that drew the attention of an agency tasked with rooting out safety defects.