Lawmakers should require car companies to use new technology that effectively forces drivers to pay attention to the road when using partially self-driving vehicles, Federal transportation safety officials recommended Tuesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s unanimous recommendation followed its ruling that Silicon Valley automaker Tesla shared the blame for what’s believed to be the first deadly crash involving such a car.
The design of Tesla’s so-called Autopilot technology contributed to a crash that killed an Ohio man in May 2016, the four-person panel said. But the NTSB also ruled that the driver had an “overreliance” on the technology and that there were no technical defects.
Robert Sumwalt, chairman of NTSB, said Tesla’s “operational limitations played a major role in this collision.”
Joshua Brown, an Ohio resident, was killed when his Model S luxury electric car crashed at a high speed into a semi-truck while using Tesla’s self-accelerating, steering and braking.
To read more of the original article, go to USA Today.
