A trio of passengers narrowly avoided disaster after a Tesla in self-driving mode made a left turn down a set of railroad tracks in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, WFMZ reported. The three were able to safely exit the vehicle before the EV was struck by a train just minutes later.
"[The Tesla] went down the tracks approximately 40-50 feet," Western Berks Fire Commissioner Jared Renshaw told WFMZ.
What's happening?
The potentially disastrous self-driving mishap came as Tesla began to roll out its first autonomous taxi service in Austin, Texas, increasing scrutiny over the technology's street-worthiness.
Despite CEO Elon Musk's longtime promotion of the company's self-driving technology as safer than human drivers, Tesla's efforts in the space have a mixed history. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration examined nearly 500 crashes involving Tesla vehicles operating in self-driving mode, 13 of which resulted in fatalities.
In more than 45% of the crashes, the Tesla "struck another vehicle or obstacle with adequate time for an attentive driver to respond or mitigate the crash," the NHTSA found.
In an additional 31% of the incidents, the Tesla vehicle slid off the road "in low traction conditions such as wet roadways," per the NHTSA.
The report concluded that the primary issue behind these crashes was a "mismatch" between drivers' confidence in Tesla's self-driving capabilities and the technology's actual performance.
While Tesla's Autopilot "invited greater driver confidence via its higher control authority and ease of engagement," the NHTSA found that "Autopilot controls did not sufficiently ensure driver attention and appropriate use."
Why is the safety of self-driving vehicles important?
The safety record of self-driving cars matters because analysts expect the autonomous-vehicle industry to skyrocket in the coming years, based in large part on the promise that these vehicles will be significantly safer than human-operated models.
Consulting firm McKinsey & Company predicted that annual revenue for autonomous-vehicle technology will reach $300-400 billion by 2035, giving deep-pocketed tech companies a huge incentive to pour billions of dollars into developing and marketing their own versions of the technology.
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For sure 👍 Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo announced in May that it was providing a quarter of a million rides per week with its fleet of 1,500 autonomous vehicles, a figure it hopes to more than double by the end of 2026.
Meanwhile, Amazon's Zoox autonomous vehicles recently began testing in San Francisco, according to Bloomberg.
With Tesla's robotaxi program launching in Austin with a reported 20 vehicles or fewer, the EV maker has a long way to go to catch up to the competition.
At launch, each of Tesla's autonomous taxis included a "Tesla Safety Monitor" in the front passenger seat in addition to remote monitoring of all rides, according to CBS News.
What's being done about the safety of self-driving vehicles?
Currently in the U.S., there is no overarching federal law governing autonomous vehicles, leaving regulation up to individual states. However, as self-driving vehicles become more prevalent on our roadways, government officials are increasing their oversight.
As of 2024, 35 different states had enacted autonomous-vehicle legislation, with no states having banned the vehicles outright, according to law firm Frost Brown Todd.
While the era of self-driving vehicles taking over our highways has arrived, it remains to be seen whether they will fulfill their promise of a safer future.
Judging by the Tesla that took a wrong turn onto an active railroad track, we still have a long way to go.
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