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 .
The office specified that “the driver had not activated Autopilot”, Tesla's flagship driving assistance software, implicated in several fatal accidents around the world.
One evening in December 2021, a taxi driver accelerated in an incomprehensible manner on an avenue in the south of Paris and overran the cycle path, hitting and killing a cyclist at 118 km/h, before exploding a glass container and injuring around twenty people.
Technical problems and human errors: the incident explained by the BEA-TT
Just before the accident, the car had braked suddenly due to the “untimely” activation, “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 your foot off the accelerator”, and this for twenty seconds, explains the BEA.
Recommendations and actions: Tesla and the DGEC will act
The office recommended that Tesla “not make it possible to override AEBS activation 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 recommended better informing drivers “on the vehicle’s acceleration capabilities” and on the operation of the main driving aids.
The taxi driver is 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 brakes did not respond and that the vehicle accelerated abnormally. This version was contradicted by a judicial expertise in March 2024, which underlined that “no brake support was detected”.
