Your paean to Elon Musk (“Tesla’s rise has sparked an electric revolution”, editorial January 25) rightly praises the Tesla founder for turning the world on to electric cars. But you failed to note that, along the way, Mr Musk is also guilty of dangerously overhyping the capabilities of his company’s driver assistance features.
A recent investigation by the Dutch Safety Board has noted a number of issues with Tesla’s so-called autopilot including concerns over driver overestimation, misunderstanding and misuse of the system as well as driver disengagement from the driving task. The report also found that the system can be and is activated in situations that it cannot cope with — such as unseparated highways with roundabouts.
These failures have led to deaths and serious injuries that otherwise might not have occurred.
Last year, a crash investigation by the US National Transport Safety Board found that the “autopilot” system’s design, which enabled the driver to disengage from the driving task, contributed to a serious crash.
Our fear is that the “ruthlessness” and “chutzpah” the FT attributes to Mr Musk could lead to more unnecessary deaths and injuries unless regulators on both sides of the Atlantic step up and demand changes both to the way these systems operate, and to the way they are marketed to customers.
Antonio Avenoso
Executive Director,
European Transport Safety Council,
Brussels, Belgium