Tesla's Automatic Steering System Will Be Audited By The US Transportation Agency

Tesla car logo (doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The United States (US) security and transportation regulator or the equivalent of the transportation service in Indonesia wants to audit the software system in the Tesla autonomous car. This is done to reduce the risk of accidents for drivers allowing the car to self-drive or self-driving on the highway.

“NHTSA has been briefed on a new feature of Tesla, which is an extension of the existing driver assistance system. The agency will closely monitor the new technology and will not hesitate to take action to protect the public from unreasonable risks to safety, "said NHTSA, Reuters, Friday, October 23

Meanwhile, Tesla has just released a beta version or test version of its "Full Self Driving" software to a number of drivers who it claims are "expert and careful". Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the latest improvements are planned to be widely released later this year, with systems becoming stronger as they collect more data.

Musk himself has promised for years to roll out the self-driving feature soon, but has missed several company-set deadlines.

Researchers, regulators and insurance groups say the auto-steering feature is more complex than the company anticipated a few years ago. They criticized Tesla's promotion of the existing semi-automatic Autopilot system for being very misleading.

A consortium of driverless technology companies, Partners for Automated Vehicle Education (PAVE), which includes Ford Motor Co, General Motors Co, and Google's Waymo self-driving unit, criticized Tesla's approach.

"Public road testing is a serious responsibility and using untrained consumers to validate beta level software on public roads is dangerous and does not comply with existing industry guidelines and norms," PAVE said in a statement.

Autopilots and similar advanced driver assistance systems can provide steering, braking and acceleration support in limited circumstances, generally on the road.

Tesla owners can purchase "Full Self Driving" for US $ 8,000. However, Musk said that the price would go up by $ 2,000 on Monday. Similar price increases will take effect in other countries when a test version is released there, he added.