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News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Dec. 1, 2022 Jane Doe
Director of Media Relations
123-555-9111
janedoe@tesla.com

Tesla responds to crashes due to their self-driving cars malfunctioning

AUSTIN, Texas - One of the most famous companies of self-driving cars, Tesla, has had a few
run-ins with dangerous and some even fatal crashes due to their cars not functioning quite right.

The first report was in May of 2017 which involved a driver using Tesla Autopilot who died
when his Tesla Model S failed to spot a tractor-trailer crossing a divided highway. Federal
investigators exonerated Tesla since the Autopilot system functioned as designed and the driver
failed to remain vigilant and take control when necessary.

Another accident that was reported involving one of Tesla’s self-driving cars is now under
investigation. A driver told authorities that their “Tesla's ‘full-self-driving’ software braked
unexpectedly” which triggered an eight-car pileup in the San Francisco Bay Area on
Thanksgiving Day 2022. This crash led to nine people being treated for minor injuries including
one juvenile who was hospitalized.

“Tesla generally receives excellent safety scores with a consistent 5-star rating as assessed by
The European New Car Assessment Programme. To add to that, Tesla's flagship has a very high
active safety level, with a 98% score in the safety assist category. Even with all the statistics
proven the general public is still wary of the product.”

“It takes a lot of coding and extensive research to perfect our Teslas,” Owen Rogers, the director
of engineering and mechanics employed at Tesla’s site in Austin said. “Though there can be
errors in rare circumstances, they are usually buffed out by the time the car is put on the market.”
However, frequent drivers want to know how true this is. Studies show that only 57% of people

-more-
familiar with self-driving cars would be willing to ride inside them. Yet, Tesla notes that 94% of
crashes involve some form of human error or impairment. With that being said, more likely than
not, it seems that humans are at fault rather than the Teslas. With these modern advances, there is
still bound to be some human error because unlike many AIs, humans are far from perfect.

With that in mind, Tesla doesn’t want to stop there, though. They are actively trying to better the
Tesla models. CEO and Product Architect of Tesla, Elon Musk, told news outlets, “To ease some
concerns circulating around, Tesla has fitted its latest Model S and Model X cars with the
hardware necessary for them to drive without instruction, including eight cameras, 12 new
sensors and an upgraded radar system.”

The bottom line is it will take a very long time to get self-driving cars that are 100% safe for
passengers. Looking at the data, it could take as many as 50 years to get that to that level of
safety standards a writer for slate.com Neel V. Patel hypotheses. A new report by the RAND
Corp. argues that “instead of waiting for near-perfect driving, we should start putting
autonomous vehicles on the road as soon as they are even just a little bit safer than humans. After
all, doing so would already lower the number of lives lost in car accidents—even if some of
those self-driven vehicles still crash, and even kill.”

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For More Information

Jane Doe
Director of Media Relations
123-555-9111
janedoe@tesla.com