Since 2018, there have been at least 11 crashes blamed on Tesla's Autopilot or cruise control, where a car has hit an emergency service vehicle.
For as yet unknown reasons Autopilot doesn’t always pick up police cars, ambulances and fire engines.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is current investigated the partially-automated driving system so this accident couldn’t have happened at a worse time for Musk’s car company.
The 27-year-old Tesla driver and the driver of the vehicle being helped by the officer both suffered minor injuries and the officer wasn’t injured.
In the wider incidents, 17 people have been injured in the accidents and one was killed.
Tesla uses a camera-based system, computers and sometimes radar to spot and identify obstacles and to then instruct the vehicle. The accidents have occurred when the system hasn’t identified any obstacles despite the emergency vehicles all using at least one of flashing lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board or road cones.
Autopilot has also sometimes been misused by drivers – with some people caught driving drunk or even in the back seat while the car is in motion.
