Consumer Reports tells Tesla to get rid of autopilot

Consumer Reports on Thursday called for electric automaker Tesla to disable its semiautonomous autopilot mode in the wake of a May crash fatality in which autopilot failed to alert a driver of an oncoming vehicle. "While the exact cause of the fatal accident is not yet known, the incident has caused safety advocates, including Consumer Reports, to question whether the name Autopilot, as well as the marketing hype of its roll-out, promoted a dangerously premature assumption that the Model S was capable of truly driving on its own," the independent, nonprofit organization Consumer Reports wrote in a lengthy blog post. Specifically, Consumer Reports asked Tesla to disable autopilot's "autosteer" system, issue new guidance to drivers about the system's use, discontinue beta releases of semiautonomous technology and rename the autopilot feature. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating the cause of the crash that killed Model S owner Joshua Brown, 40, of Canton, Ohio. In a letter sent Friday to the car company, NHTSA asked for all documentation related to the crash.