The French Accident Investigation Bureau (BEA-TT) recommended Thursday to the American manufacturer Tesla to modify its emergency braking system, after a fatal accident in 2021 in Paris caused by the driver of a car of this brand .
One evening in December 2021, a taxi driver accelerated in an incomprehensible manner on an avenue in the south of the capital, and spilled onto the cycle path.
He hit and killed a cyclist at 118 km/h, before exploding a glass container and injuring around twenty people.
The Office clarified that “the driver had not activated theAutopilot”, Tesla's flagship driving assistance software, implicated in several fatal accidents around the world.
The car brakes suddenly, and the driver accelerates
Just before the accident, the car had braked suddenly due to the activation “untimely“, “because a priori there was no obstacle“, of the emergency braking system (AEBS), according to the report published Thursday by the BEA-TT.
At that moment, “the driver presses hard on the accelerator“, “probably thinking“that the braking was linked to the vehicle's energy recovery, specifies the BEA.
The driver did not understand that he had mistakenly pressed the accelerator instead of the brake and, “panicked by such acceleration, he was unable to react to his environment or attempt any action to remedy this acceleration, including taking his foot off the accelerator“. And this for twenty seconds, explains the BEA.
The office recommended that Tesla “not make it possible to cancel the activation of the AEBS by pressing the accelerator“.
The Bureau also recommended to the General Directorate of Energy and Climate (DGEC), responsible for these files, to propose a modification of the United Nations regulations in the same direction, but also an increase in the duration and frequency recording vehicle data in the event of an accident.
The BEA also advised Tesla to better inform drivers.on the vehicle's acceleration capabilities” and on the operation of the main driving aids.
The driver of the taxi was indicted for involuntary manslaughter and involuntary injury by land motor vehicle.
He, for his part, filed a complaint against Tesla for “endangering the lives of others“, claiming that the car's brake was not responding and that the vehicle had accelerated abnormally.
Tesla wants to catch up on autonomous driving
This version was contradicted by a judicial expertise in March 2024, which underlines that “no brake application was detected“.
Tesla wants to make autonomous driving its technological showcase, with the recent presentation of the Cybercab, a driverless electric “robotaxi”. Elon Musk's firm describes this car as “ten times safer than a car driven by a human“. She hopes to catch up with companies like Waymo, which are already operating autonomous taxis in large American cities.
Elon Musk has also promised that unsupervised autonomous driving will be offered on the Model 3 and Model X before 2027, in certain American states.
