'Critical Safety Gap:' NHTSA Tesla Autopilot Probe Finds Elon Musk's Driver Engagement Software Is Weak

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has closed its long-standing investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance system after reviewing hundreds of crashes involving the technology’s misuse, including 13 that were fatal. TechCrunch reports that the NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation released documents on Friday detailing the completion of an extensive body of work that uncovered evidence of Tesla’s weak driver engagement system being inappropriate for Autopilot’s permissive operating capabilities. This mismatch created a critical safety gap between drivers’ expectations of Autopilot’s operating capabilities and the system’s true capabilities, leading...