Elon Musk on Monday panned a pilot version of an advanced driver-assistance feature Tesla Inc. is developing, a week after U.S. car-safety regulators opened a probe into a more basic iteration of the company's driving aide. The statement amounts to a public concession by the Tesla CEO of a shortcoming in a driver-assistance feature designed to help vehicles steer through urban areas. The feature, available on a relatively small number of vehicles as part of a pilot program, is part of what Tesla calls Full Self-Driving, or FSD, technology. "FSD Beta 9.2 is actually not great," Mr. Musk said via Twitter, adding the company "is rallying to improve as fast as possible." Tesla vehicles come equipped with driver-assistance technology the company calls Autopilot.

Each year, thousands of people lose their lives crossing the street. When drivers don't expect to see pedestrians, sometimes they just don't see them, even though they're there. Other times, pedestrians make poor choices, like crossing the road in the dark, which leads to accidents and, sometimes, tragic deaths. One of the key selling points for future AVs as well as today's connected vehicle-safety systems is that they're safer than human drivers driving without help. However, a new study suggests the industry still has a way to go before this is truly the case.