It was just before lunchtime on its third day of operation, and the line outside Elon Musk's new Tesla Diner in Hollywood already stretched to nearly 100 people. The restaurant has been billed as a "retro-futuristic" drive-in where you can grab a high-end burger and watch classic films on giant screens, all while charging your Tesla. After months of buildup and controversy, the diner had suddenly opened on Monday, at 4.20pm, the kind of stoner boy joke that Musk is well-known for. Hundreds of fans lined up to try burgers in Cybertruck-shaped boxes, or take photos of the Optimus robot serving popcorn on the roof deck of the gleaming circular diner. But that was for the grand opening.

It was a Monday afternoon in June 2023 when Rita Meier, 45, joined us for a video call. Meier told us about the last time she said goodbye to her husband, Stefan, five years earlier. He had been leaving their home near Lake Constance, Germany, heading for a trade fair in Milan. Meier recalled how he hesitated between taking his Tesla Model S or her BMW. He had never driven the Tesla that far before. He checked the route for charging stations along the way and ultimately decided to try it. Rita had a bad feeling. She stayed home with their three children, the youngest less than a year old. At 3.18pm on 10 May 2018, Stefan Meier lost control of his Model S on the A2 highway near the Monte Ceneri tunnel. "The collision with the guardrail launches the vehicle into the air, where it flips several times before landing," investigators would write later. The car came to rest more than 70 metres away, on the opposite side of the road, leaving a trail of wreckage. Several passersby tried to open the doors and rescue the driver, but they couldn't unlock the car. When they heard explosions and saw flames through the windows, they retreated. Even the firefighters, who arrived 20 minutes later, could do nothing but watch the Tesla burn.

Authorities have confirmed that a Tesla on autopilot was partly responsible for a crash in Washington that killed a motorcyclist . Jeffrey Nissen, 28, was traveling about 15 miles northeast of Seattle when a Model S came from behind and rammed him off his bike before running him over. Investigators from the Washington State Patrol found the Tesla driver was operating on the company's'Full Self Driving' (FSD) and had looked at his cell phone while the vehicle was moving. Nissen was found under the car and pronounced dead at the scene, authorities reported. The 56-year-old driver was arrested for investigation of vehicular homicide.

A Tesla driver using the vehicle's self-driving mode crashed into a police car Thursday morning in Fullerton, almost hitting an officer who was investigating another crash, according to authorities. A Fullerton Police Department officer was investigating a fatal crash around 12:04 a.m. The officer was managing traffic at the time and emergency flares had been placed on the road. The officer was standing outside his patrol vehicle, with its emergency lights on, and managed to jump out of the way before the driver of a blue Tesla crashed into his car, authorities said. A police dispatcher, who was riding in the patrol vehicle, also moved out of the way of the crash.

Musk has said cars operating in Autopilot are safer than those controlled by humans, a message that several plaintiffs -- and some experts -- have said creates a false sense of complacency among Tesla drivers. The company has argued that it is not responsible for crashes because it makes clear to Tesla drivers in user manuals and on dashboard screens that they are solely responsible for maintaining control of their car at all times. So far, that argument has prevailed in court, most recently when a California jury found Tesla not liable for a fatal crash that occurred when Autopilot was allegedly engaged.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Virginia authorities have determined that a Tesla was operating on its Autopilot system and was speeding in the moments leading to a crash with a crossing tractor-trailer last July that killed the Tesla driver. The death of Pablo Teodoro III, 57, is the third since 2016 in which a Tesla that was using Autopilot ran underneath a crossing tractor-trailer, raising questions about the partially automated system's safety and where it should be allowed to operate. The crash south of Washington remains under investigation by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which sent investigators to Virginia last summer and began a broader probe of Autopilot more than two years ago.

As if Elon Musk did not have enough on his plate with Twitter, Tesla is now under fire in a full-page advertisement in the New York Times that warns its'Full Self-Driving presents a life-threatening danger to child pedestrians.' The ad, which cost about $150,000, is from software maker The Dawn Project and claims to highlight safety testing conducted by the firm in October. A video of the experiment suggests the system does not register or stop for small mannequins crossing a road, according to the group. The testing involved a man driving in a Tesla on a back road and running over child-size mannequins in his path. Using the Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta 10.69.2.2, which is the latest version of the system, the vehicle collided with a 29-inch mannequin at speeds as low as 15 miles per hour and it ran over a four-foot-tall one at 20 miles per hour.

January 22, 2018 in Culver City: A Tesla Model S hit the back of a fire truck parked at an accident in Culver City around 8:30 am on Interstate 405 using the cars Autopilot system. The Tesla, which was going 65mph, suffered'significant damage' and the firetruck was taken out of service for body work. May 30, 2018 in Laguna Beach: Authorities said a Tesla sedan in Autopilot mode crashed into a parked police cruiser in Laguna Beach. Laguna Beach Police Sgt. Jim Cota says the officer was not in the cruiser during the crash. He said the Tesla driver suffered minor injuries.

A'deeply disturbing' video claims to show a Tesla in full self-driving mode running over a child-size mannequin during a test by a safety campaign group. The Dawn Project said the vehicle failed to detect the stationary dummy's presence in the road and hit it over and over again at an average speed of 25mph. It claims that the experiment was carried out under'controlled conditions' on a test track in California. Tesla, which was founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, has been approached for a comment by MailOnline but is yet to respond to the video. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) confirmed that it'currently has an open and active investigation of Tesla's Autopilot active driver assistance system'.

Tesla Director of Artificial Intelligence and Autopilot Andrej Karpathy is leaving the company at a critical time - as it faces renewed probes over crashes and growing scrutiny. Tesla's head of artificial intelligence and autopilot Andrej Karpathy, pictured above at a conference, is leaving the company at a critical time'It's been a great pleasure to help Tesla towards its goals over the last 5 years and a difficult decision to part ways. In that time, Autopilot graduated from lane keeping to city streets and I look forward to seeing the exceptionally strong Autopilot team continue that momentum,' he wrote on Twitter, noting that he has no plans for what's next. Tesla CEO Elon Musk replied to thank him for his work at the company. The leadership change comes at a challenging time, as Tesla faces renewed scrutiny from US regulators over crashes involving drivers who used Autopilot and works to expand the latest version of Full Self Driving (FSD) to a larger number of customers.