The sensors on Tesla cars log nearly every particular. While automakers rarely share this data, experts say it could fundamentally change the way regulators, police departments, insurance companies and other organizations investigate anything that happens on the road, making such investigations more accurate and less costly
The attorney Mike Nelson sits in his Tesla in Kingsley, Pa., June 15, 2022. Nelson recently founded the start-up QuantivRisk, which aims to collect driving data from Tesla and other carmakers before analyzing it and selling the results to police departments, insurance companies, law offices and research labs. (Hannah Yoon/The New York Times)
Shortly before 2 p.m. on a clear July day in 2020, as Tracy Forth was driving near Tampa, Florida, her white Tesla Model S was hit from behind by another car in the left lane of Interstate 275.
It was the kind of accident that occurs thousands of times a day on U.S. highways. When the vehicles collided, Forth’s car slid into the median as the other one, a blue Acura sport utility vehicle, spun across the highway and onto the far shoulder.
After the collision, Forth told police officers that Autopilot — a Tesla driver-assistance system that can steer, brake and accelerate cars — had suddenly activated her brakes for no apparent reason. She was unable to regain control, according to the police report, before the Acura crashed into the back of her car.
©2019 New York Times News Service