Driver-Assist Or Self-Driving Technology Linked To Nearly 400 Car Accidents

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has received 392 reports of crashes involving vehicles equipped with driver-assist or self-driving technology over the past ten months. The agency said that 273 of the accidents involved Teslas. Honda was in a distant second with 90 reports of crashes of vehicles using its driver-assist systems.

The NHTSA said that five people were killed in the crashes, and six others were seriously injured.

The NHTSA also said that it received 130 reports of crashes involving fully autonomous vehicles. Most of the accidents were at low speed and were the results of other drivers rear-ending the cars. Only one of the crashes resulted in a serious injury, while 15 others suffered minor to moderate injuries.

“These technologies hold great promise to improve safety, but we need to understand how these vehicles are performing in real-world situations,” said NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff. “This will help our investigators quickly identify potential defect trends that emerge.”

The agency warned against using the data to draw conclusions on the safety of the systems or using it to compare different automakers. While Tesla was involved in around 70% of the crashes, the automaker also has a much larger share of vehicles with self-driving or assisted-driving systems on the roads than other companies.