According to a document provided by a representative from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the organization has opened up its third special investigation into a Tesla crash this year. It’s related to a fatal crash involving a 2018 Tesla Model 3 that was connected to the vehicle’s advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), though it didn’t specify if it was related Autopilot or just other ADAS features.
NHTSA did not give any further information about what other vehicles were involved in the crash, nor the number of victims.
This is the third Tesla crash under investigation with regard to ADAS features. The other two investigations were opened in March. One was another fatal wreck in California that, in addition to being connected to ADAS, also related to a failure to move over for stopped vehicles. The other was in North Carolina and, while not a fatal crash, it involved “severe” injuries to a pedestrian.
Last year, NHTSA opened 10 ADAS-related crash investigations, 8 of which were for Teslas. They ranged from incidents with minor injuries and damage to ones with multiple fatalities.
Tesla has also faced investigations regarding its ADAS features including Autopilot and the misleadingly named “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) advanced driver assists over the last couple years. Notably, this led to a major recall for FSD.
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