Tesla Model S Crashes While Using Autopilot… Again

While Elon Musk focuses on putting “boring tunnels” underneath LA to ease traffic jams, his company’s cars can’t stop running into emergency vehicles. In Laguna Beach, California, on May 30th, a Model S in autopilot mode crashed into an unoccupied police car. This isn’t the first (or second) time this has happened, either. In January, a Model S in Culver City, California hit a fire truck. Then, again, in April, a Model S in Utah id the exact same thing. Both vehicles were also operating in Autopilot mode. What’s going on here? Does Elon Musk have a secret plan to set his cars loose on emergency services to undermine the country? No, probably not. 

Why Does the Model S Keep Crashing? 

It’s fair to remind everyone that there are hundreds of car accidents every single day. It just so happens that a lot of attention is paid to those that occur when an Autopilot program like Tesla’s is in play. While the luxury car company strongly reminds drivers to remain aware of their surroundings when using the feature, it seems many operators fail to do so.  

But why emergency vehicles? What gives? Well, it makes sense when you see the details. In the three aforementioned cases, the emergency vehicles were stopped on side of a road. Autopilot’s braking works best when the vehicle is following another moving vehicle. However, emergency vehicles at an angle that are also not moving might not be enough to trip the Autopilot’s sensors.  

Insurance Companies Don’t Like the Autopilot’s Instability 

Hopefully Tesla owners didn’t go broke buying their Model S, because the thing is becoming expensive to insure. Reports from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety show that the Model S is the most expensive car in the US to take out a policy on. The average cost of insuring one? Around $1,800 a year! That’s almost as much as I had to pay when I was a teenager with a few accidents on his record!  

To offset this, Tesla has partnered with Liberty Mutual to keep rates for their cars more reasonable. Liberty Mutual and Tesla have an “InsureMyTesla” program that seeks to address these absurd rates. In a statement given to Ars Technica, a Tesla spokesperson stated, “Tesla guarantees that there will always be an insurance provider that will charge less for a Model S or X than any other car with a similar driver, price and vehicle category.”