Video clips from traffic surveillance cameras on the San Francisco Bay Bridge on Thanksgiving morning show a white Tesla reportedly in “Full Self-Driving” mode crossing over to the fast lane and abruptly braking, resulting in an eight-car pileup.
The videos were obtained via a California Public Records Act request by The Intercept, an investigative news website, and were posted on its site.
The crash resulted in minor injuries to eight adults and several children and stalled traffic for more than an hour. The crash is under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after the driver of the Tesla Model S told authorities that the vehicle was operating using the automated-driving system, referred to as FSD, for “Full Self Driving,” which Tesla owners have been beta-testing on public roads. The agency told CNN that it would look into whether any of the Tesla’s semi-autonomous features may have malfunctioned.
The crash happened on the same day that Elon Musk announced that the beta-testing of FSD would be expanded from a limited set of Tesla owners to “anyone in North America who requests it.”
Police said the video evidence did not conclusively show whether the vehicle was being driven by its human operator or FSD. By the end of last year, Tesla said more than 285,000 owners in North America could make use of the feature.
The NHTSA has said that it plans to examine a crash in Ohio also involving a Tesla that may have been using the automated-driving system. The agency has investigated a total of 35 crashes that potentially involved Tesla’s Autopilot highway-driving system. A total of 19 people died in the crashes.
