Lina Khan: Tesla Autopilot On US FTC’s Radar

TECHNOLOGY

Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the United States said, the concerns raised by the lawmakers regarding the autopilot or driver assistance system of Tesla Inc. has been on their radar. Followed by the policy of the agency, FTC chair said, it is absolutely true that, they know this has been an issue on which most of the members of Congress have been focusing and written to them about and hence it is certainly something that is on their radar.

Tesla Inc. did not responded to this. An FTC investigation can possibly lead to a lawsuit, which is seeking to force Tesla Inc. for changing how the company is describing the capabilities of the Autopilot system, which might be damaging the reputation of Tesla.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) has also opened special investigations into the 35 crashes happened since 2016 and the investigations also involve Tesla vehicles in which the autopilot systems had been suspected of being in use.

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Till now, 14 deaths have been reported in all those incidents which is including three people, who had been killed in a crash, which took place in California. Tesla Inc. said that, the Autopilot system is assisting the drivers by enabling the vehicles for steering, accelerating and braking automatically but the features are still requiring the active driver supervision and is not making the autonomous vehicle.

In 2018, two consumer advocacy groups of the US has also urged FTC to investigate naming of Tesla’s Autopilot.