The U.S. regulatory authorities are again turning their attention this week to the Tesla Autopilot system. TechCrunch mentioned in a traffic technology column that a fatal accident in Texas had caused national concern and that the driver had indicated to the police that the vehicle auxiliary driving function was in operation at the time of the accident.

The National Road Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Transport Safety Council (NTSB) have investigated the matter. According to the article, it was not possible to confirm whether Autopilot or FSD had been activated at the time of the accident, but at the time of the incident Tesla was continuously strengthening its position of “AI and Robotics”.

Two accidents triggered an investigation.

In addition to the Texas accident, Tesla reached a settlement for another fatal accident in 2023 related to the FSD. The case was also included in another NHTSA investigation, focusing on the system ' s ability to correctly identify and respond to low-visibility road conditions.

TechCrunch mentions that the scenes of concern to the regulatory authorities include strong sunlight, fog and dust in the air. This means that the review around the Tesla automatic driving capacity is extending from a single accident to the system ' s performance in a complex environment.

Waymo continues to expand.

In contrast to Tesla's experience, Waymo is continuing to advance the unmanned taxi business. According to the article, the Robotaxi model used by Waymo was designed by Sweden and manufactured in China and transported to the United States before being fitted with an automatic driving system by Waymo.

  • 13 cameras
  • 4 laser radar sensors
  • 6 radar units

The research institute, Moffett Nathanson, tracks the delivery of the vehicles through the United States bill of lading document to determine the extent to which the Waymo project is advancing. Meanwhile, Waymo has established entities in Germany that are considered to be preparing for local Robotaxi services, and in Nashville, in the United States, Waymo has removed its candidate list and opened it to the public.

Lyft improves access requirements

The article also mentioned that Lyft published multi-sensor safety standards for auto-driving services. According to this standard, auto-driving vehicles that rely only on a single type of sensor cannot access the Lyft network.

This means that if Tesla were to introduce future cameras-only Cybercab or Robotaxi and adopt the FSD (Unsubvised) programme, it would not meet the current requirements of Lynft for access. However, this rule does not apply to Tesla vehicles operated by human drivers at this stage.

There's a lot of new moves in the industry.

  • OpenAI, dig it up. Uber, Indian president.
  • Lucid will be laid off 18%
  • The U.S. Department of Transport proposes to liberalize the automatic driving rules.

In addition, Polestar has been unable to sell new cars in the United States because of United States restrictions on Chinese networked vehicle technology. Zoox is also adapting its Robotaxi model to commercial operations and larger-scale production. Overall, the United States autopilot industry is experiencing two main lines of regulatory tightening and commercialization.