A Tesla owner charges his vehicle in April 2021 at a charging station in Topeka, Kan.. Tesla reported 273 crashes involving partially automated driving systems, according to statistics released by U.S. safety regulators on Wednesday. A Tesla owner charges his vehicle in April 2021 at a charging station in Topeka, Kan.. Tesla reported 273 crashes involving partially automated driving systems, according to statistics released by U.S. safety regulators on Wednesday. Automakers reported nearly 400 crashes of vehicles with partially automated driver-assist systems, including 273 involving Teslas, according to statistics released Wednesday by U.S. safety regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration cautioned against using the numbers to compare automakers, saying it didn't weight them by the number of vehicles from each manufacturer that use the systems, or how many miles those vehicles traveled. Automakers reported crashes from July of last year through May 15 under an order from the agency, which is examining such crashes broadly for the first time.

If you own a Tesla, or a loved one does, or you're thinking about buying one, or you share public roads with Tesla cars, you might want to watch the new documentary "Elon Musk's Crash Course." Premiering Friday on FX and Hulu, the 75-minute fright show spotlights the persistent dangers of Tesla's automated driving technologies, the company's lax safety culture, Musk's P.T. Barnum-style marketing hype and the weak-kneed safety regulators who seem not to care. Get Screen Gab for weekly recommendations, analysis, interviews and irreverent discussion of the TV and streaming movies everyone's talking about. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. The central through line is the story of Joshua Brown, a rabid Tesla fan and derring-do techno-geek beheaded when his Autopilot-engaged Tesla drove itself at full speed on a Florida highway underneath the trailer of a semi-truck in 2016.

U.S. auto-safety regulators have opened a special crash investigation into a fatal wreck involving a Tesla Inc. vehicle that has left three people dead. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration disclosed the probe Wednesday, identifying the vehicle as a 2022 Tesla Model S. It added the incident to a list of auto crashes it is investigating that are potentially linked to semiautonomous driving features.

Tesla is recalling nearly 27,000 cars in the US due to windshield defrosting problems, according to a US safety regulator. The electric vehicle company is recalling 26,681 cars, including some 2021-2022 Model 3, Model S, Model X, and 2020-2022 Model Y vehicles, according to a safety recall report. In an acknowledgement letter from the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) dated 8 February, Tesla informed the federal organisation that a software error linked to the vehicle's heat pump was behind the windshield defrosting. "A software error may cause a valve in the heat pump to open unintentionally and trap the refrigerant inside the evaporator, resulting in decreased defrosting performance," the letter said. The defrosting problem may reduce drivers' visibility and potentially increase the risk of a crash, the NHTSA noted.

A Tesla car in Autopilot mode warned its driver seven times to put his hands on the steering wheel during the 40 minutes before the crash that ended his life last year, a newly released set of reports from the National Transportation Safety Board revealed. The reports, released this week, contain a cache of details that the federal safety regulator is using in its investigation into the May 2016 crash in Florida that left 40-year-old Joshua Brown dead. The crash -- in which Brown's Tesla Model S sedan drove under the trailer of a big-rig truck that was making a left turn -- drew worldwide attention and raised questions about the safety of Tesla's semiautonomous Autopilot feature. Tesla Inc., which is based in Palo Alto and led by Elon Musk, has repeatedly called Autopilot an "assist feature." It has said that while using Autopilot, drivers must keep their hands on the wheel at all times and be prepared to take over if necessary.