U.S. transportation regulators are opening a new probe of a Tesla car crash, one week after announcing an investigation into a fatal crash of a Tesla operating in the company’s semi-autonomous driving mode.
Another Tesla crash is under investigation to see if Autopilot is at fault
Federal regulators are probing a non-fatal accident from July 1.
Asa Mathat
The new investigation involves a non-fatal crash on July 1 in Pennsylvania. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will try to determine if the Tesla’s Autopilot functions were active at the time.
The additional investigation will likely intensify scrutiny around the safety and design of Tesla’s Autopilot product, which provides some self-driving features as a software update. (Read more on that technology here.)
A Tesla rep sent this statement
Tesla received a message from the car on July 1st indicating a crash event, but logs were never transmitted. We have no data at this point to indicate that Autopilot was engaged or not engaged. This is consistent with the nature of the damage reported in the press, which can cause the antenna to fail.
As we do with all crash events, we immediately reached out to the customer to confirm they were ok and offer support, but were unable to reach him. We have since attempted to contact the customer three times by phone without success. It is not possible to learn more without access to the vehicle’s onboard logs.
A report from the Detroit Free Press said the Tesla Model X involved in the Pennsylvania crash was operating in Autopilot mode.
Tesla opted not to disclose the earlier crash, which happened in May, to investors at the time. Fortune questioned that decision. Telsa CEO Elon Musk defended it (twice), saying the crash was “not material” to company shareholders.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
