Autopilot Failure: Tesla Model S Crashes into Van on European Highway - An Incident Illustrating Need for Responsible AI

May 26, 2016

A distressing incident involving a Tesla Model S utilizing the Traffic-Aware Cruise Control (TACC) feature of Autopilot occurred on a European highway. The vehicle, operating in heavy traffic, crashed into a parked van, causing front-end damage. This AI incident underscores the importance of trustworthy and safe AI, emphasizing the need for guardrails to prevent harm. Ready to help shape responsible AI? JOIN US. This AI incident maps to the Govern function in HISPI Project Cerebellum Trusted AI Model (TAIM).
Alleged deployer
tesla
Alleged developer
tesla
Alleged harmed parties
unnamed-tesla-owner, tesla-drivers

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/306

Data source

Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).

When citing the database as a whole, please use:

McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.

Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide

We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.