Associated Incidents
Another crash by one of Tesla's six-figure supercars on Autopilot has been reported. This time the Tesla Model S hit a parked police car.
The Laguna Beach Police Department reports the following via its public Facebook Page: "This morning, a Tesla sedan driving northbound along Laguna Canyon Road in "autopilot" collided with a parked Laguna Beach PD unit. The LBPD officer was not in the unit at the time of the collision. The driver of the Telsa sedan sustained minor injuries as a result of the collision."
This marks the third time a Tesla on Autopilot has been reported to have hit a parked emergency vehicle. The first time we heard this it was a fire truck in Culver City California. The second was a firetruck parked in Utah. If the Teslas were only smashing into unmoving police and fire trucks we would suspect a conspiracy. However, the Teslas also crash into the side of tractor-trailers and hit rigid barriers in the middle of the highway.
The real question is why Tesla is allowed to provide a system it admits is a beta and not a fully-tested product. The NTSB outlined the reasons why these accidents are happening after the first time a Tesla occupant was killed while Autopilot was engaged.
The most amazing part of the string of Tesla Autopilot crashes is that nobody outside the Tesla has been killed thus far. We suspect that the first time a first responder is hit by a Tesla on Autopilot that does not slow down will be the last day Autopilot is on sale in America.