In Lake Stevens, Washington, someone was driving their Tesla on autopilot when it slammed into a patrol car.
“On Saturday, a deputy responded to a collision in the 25200 block of 103rd Ave NE where a vehicle sheared a power pole in half,” the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.
“The deputy parked on the shoulder on the road, with his emergency lights flashing, and exited his vehicle to speak with the Fire units on scene.”
Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office; pictured above is some of the damage the Tesla did to the patrol car
“Approximately 30 seconds later, a Tesla in “autopilot” mode, struck the deputy’s vehicle causing significant damage.”
“Thankfully, there were no injuries from this collision. This is a great reminder that vehicles may have autopilot to assist, but it cannot be relied upon to get you safely from one destination to the next.”
The officer who had been driving the car responded to a call about a car that had hit a telephone pole.
The officer had pulled over to the side of the road and left his flashing lights on before exiting his car.
Approximately 30 seconds after he got out, the Tesla slammed right into the left side of the patrol car he had just been in.
Thankfully, nobody was hurt in the accident, but some of the recent incidents involving Teslas on Autopilot have been deadly.
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Tesla first launched the Autopilot feature back in 2015. Since the launch, a website dedicated to collecting data on injuries and fatalities of the feature noted that there have been 17 accidents worldwide involving Autopilot.
Of those 17 accidents, 10 happened here in America and the rest were worldwide. There were also 6 total deaths involving Autopilot. 3 of those deaths occurred here and 3 were counted worldwide.
Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office; pictured above is another photo of the damage the Tesla did to the patrol car
In February of this year, the National Transportation Safety Board released a memo saying that Tesla’s Autopilot feature is a huge problem.
“Tesla is testing on public roads a highly automated technology but with limited oversight or reporting requirements,” it says in the document.
