An official for the National Transportation Safety Board addressed Tesla’s plans to expand its semi-autonomous driving technology.
Jennifer Homendy, chair of the NTSB, told the Wall Street Journal that the automaker needs to tackle “basic safety issues” before it expands features like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving to more parts of the road. “Basic safety issues have to be addressed before they’re then expanding it to other city streets and other areas,” Homendy said.
Homendy also expressed concern for Tesla’s use of the term “full self-driving,” which she claimed is “misleading and irresponsible,” adding that Tesla “has clearly misled numerous people to misuse and abuse technology.”
The regulator’s criticism arrives less than a month after Elon Musk announced that Tesla would launch the 10th version of its Full Self Driving (FSD) tech in September, calling the newest and unreleased version of the technology “much improved.”
On Friday, Musk took to Twitter to caution drivers that FSD technology now seems so good it can give drivers a false sense of security that they don’t need to pay attention to driving.
“FSD beta system at times can seem so good that vigilance isn’t necessary, but it is,” he wrote. “Also, any beta user who isn’t super careful will get booted. Two thousand beta users operating for almost a year with no accidents. Needs to stay that way.”
