US watchdog sticks probe into 2.6M Teslas over so-called Smart Summon crash reports

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched a probe into Tesla's software that allows cars to operate autonomously over short distances, after reports of the code crashing in a physical sense.

The software under investigation is called “Smart Summon” and “Actually Smart Summon,” and is accessed via the Tesla app. It can be used to instruct some of the automaker’s vehicles to drive themselves to the location of a driver’s choosing. Tesla says the code can navigate around obstacles to reach the desired destination, though only over distances of up to 100 metres, and suggests it as a means to do things like automatically leave a tight parking space. You can see it in action below.

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Tesla’s promises may be hollow: Multiple reports claim the self-driving machines have hit with obstacles and other vehicles. Twelve of these apparent accidents were by ...