Tesla hits parked police car in California ‘while using Autopilot’
The car was said to be using Tesla’s semi-autonomous Autopilot system at the time.
A Tesla car that crashed into a parked police car in California was using the vehicle’s assistive Autopilot mode, police have said.
The incident is one of several to involve the firm’s semi-automation feature, which appears on models of its cars and uses sensors to carry out some self-driving capabilities.
The driver in this incident suffered minor injuries and told police she was using Autopilot. It is not the first time a Tesla using the system has hit a stationary vehicle.
In a statement to the BBC, Tesla said: “When using Autopilot, drivers are continuously reminded of their responsibility to keep their hands on the wheel.”
A driver in the UK was banned in April after being spotted sitting in the passenger seat after engaging the Autopilot system.
Rights groups in the US have recently called on the country’s Federal Trade Commission to investigate Tesla over the marketing of the assistive driving tool, labeling the name Autopilot “deceptive and misleading”.
Self-driving car technology is developed in multiple forms by a range of companies, including Google, whose subsidiary Waymo is testing fully autonomous cars on roads in the US.
