Tesla involved in 'major' injury collision with Visalia motorcyclist on Demaree
Visalia police are investigating what led to a major injury collision Friday morning.
The wreck occurred before 7:30 a.m. when a motorcycle heading north on Demaree Street slammed into a black Tesla Model Y turning.
Police officers closed Demaree in both directions from Ferguson to Riggin avenues. An officer at the scene said there were major injuries, but the extent wasn't known. Sgt. Greg Byerlee said the motorcyclist was rushed to the hospital for treatment. The rider's condition wasn't given.
The Model Y's airbags were deployed.
Officers measured braking marks and photographed the debris field which stretched a football field north to Wren Street.
School-bound traffic was delayed all morning for various nearby schools.
Police will likely seek to use information from the Tesla to determine exactly what happened. Tesla's are equipped with eight cameras and 12 ultrasonic sensors that sense a crash — sometimes before they even occur — and collect recordings leading up to the incident.
It's unclear if the Tesla was equipped with Full Self-Driving features or if the Tesla Autopilot system was activate.
Tesla Autopilot and other systems
Automakers reported nearly 400 crashes of vehicles with partially automated driver-assist systems, including 273 involving Teslas, according to statistics released by U.S. safety regulators on Wednesday.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration cautioned against using the numbers to compare automakers, saying it didn’t weight them by the number of vehicles from each manufacturer that uses such systems, or how many miles those vehicles traveled.
Automakers reported crashes from July of last year through May 15 under an order from the agency, which is examining such crashes broadly for the first time.
“As we gather more data, NHTSA will be able to better identify any emerging risks or trends and learn more about how these technologies are performing in the real world,” said Steven Cliff, the agency’s administrator.
Tesla’s crashes occurred while vehicles were using Autopilot, “Full Self-Driving,” Traffic Aware Cruise Control, or other driver-assist systems that have some control over speed and steering. The company has about 830,000 vehicles with the systems on the road.
The next closest of a dozen automakers that reported crashes was Honda, with 90, but Honda says it has about 6 million vehicles on U.S. roads with such systems. Subaru was next with 10, and all other automakers reported five or fewer.
In a June 2021 order, NHTSA told more than 100 automakers and automated vehicle tech companies to report serious crashes within one day of learning about them and to disclose less-serious crashes by the 15th day of the following month. The agency is assessing how the systems perform and whether new regulations may be needed.
NHTSA also said that five people were killed in the crashes involving driver-assist systems, and six were seriously hurt.
Tesla’s crash number also may be high because the company uses telematics to monitor its vehicles and get real-time crash reports. Other automakers don’t have such capability, so their reports may come slower or crashes may not be reported at all, NHTSA said.
A message was left seeking comment from Tesla.
What is Tesla's AutoPilot?
Tesla’s crashes accounted for nearly 70% of the 392 reported by the dozen automakers. Although the Austin, Texas, automaker calls its systems Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving,” it says the vehicles cannot drive themselves and the drivers must be ready to intervene at all times.
Manufacturers were not required to report how many vehicles they have on the road that have the systems, nor did they have to report how far those vehicles traveled, or when the systems are in use, NHTSA said. At present, those numbers aren’t quantifiable, an agency official said.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Tesla involved in 'major' injury collision with Visalia motorcyclist on Demaree
