The German Federal Transport Authority, the KBAconfirmed that it had initiated ainvestigation against the autonomous driving system Tesla Autopilotand more specifically on the function of lane change assistance. The group of experts will analyze this function from the point of view of safety, to determine if it is a function suitable for the roads of the old continent. This is a very dangerous investigation for Tesla, because if Germany were to ban the use of Autopilot the company may have major problems continuing to sell its cars in Teutonic territory.
Lane change assistant is one of the key aspects ofAdvanced Driver Assist System; according to Tesla it is a system that allows the car to identify the optimal lane on which to travel, with the chance to overtake other carsfit into motorway traffic and much more.
In recent years there have been several unpleasant incidents involving the Tesla Autopilot driving system; today the system, called a level 2 autonomous driving systemis able to center the car in the lane, manage adaptive cruise control and semi-autonomous navigation, is able to park alone, access freeways and change lanes autonomously, and according to Tesla it is one very precious tool to avoid episodes of fatigue driving or inattention.
Today Autopilot relies on a number of cameras positioned inside the passenger compartmentand to a front radar able to scan the surrounding environment; it is a high-level configuration, but it suffers from a very serious defect which makes it potentially very dangerous. As already verified in various tests, the system developed by Tesla allows the driver to be distracted from the road for long periods of time – we are talking about whole minutes – and this makes reaction times much longer in case of danger, causing even serious accidents.
We cannot know what the outcome of the investigation conducted by KBA will be, but without a doubt Tesla is following the affair with great interest and some concern.
