US probes Tesla Autopilot, steering wheels that can come off

parked on highways. At least 14 Teslas have crashed into emergency vehicles nationwide while using the system.,Automated driving systems aren’t always involved in the crashes that NHTSA sends investigators to. For instance, the Ohio State Highway Patrol determined that a Tesla that hit one of its patrol cars in November was not operating on “any type of autonomous mode.”,Authorities said the California firetruck had its lights on and was parked diagonally on a highway to protect responders to an earlier accident that did not result in injuries.,Lewis Broschard III, chief of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District, said his department is concerned about the risks that inattentive drivers pose to themselves, passengers and first responders.,“These unnecessary deaths, injuries, risks to firefighters, and loss of valuable equipment are all preventable,” he said, urging drivers to slow down and move over for emergency vehicles.,“Recent reports of automobiles that may have been operating automated driving systems crashing into parked emergency vehicles at the scene of an emergency is a serious concern for the safety of our firefighters and paramedics and the public we are serving,” Rob Brown Jr., CEO of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, said in an email.,A NHTSA spokeswoman said she couldn’t comment on an open investigation when asked if the Teslas are posing a danger to emergency workers.,NHTSA has been scrutinizing Teslas more intensely in the past year, seeking several recalls and opening investigations.,Earlier Wednesday, the agency posted documents revealing an investigation of steering wheels that can detach from the steering column on as many as 120,000 Model Y SUVs.,The agency said it received two complaints in which 2023 Model Ys were delivered to customers with a missing bolt holding the wheel to the steering column. A friction fit held the steering wheels on, but they separated when force was exerted as the SUVs were driven.,The agency says in documents posted on its website

Wednesday that both incidents happened while the SUVs had low mileage on them.,In one complaint filed with NHTSA, an owner said he was driving with his family in Woodbridge, New Jersey, when the steering wheel suddenly came off on Jan. 29, five days after the vehicle was purchased. The owner wrote that he was able to pull toward the road divider. There were no injuries.,It was a “horrible experience,” the car’s owner, Prerak Patel, told The Press. He said he was in the freeway’s left lane when the steering wheel came off and was lucky the road was straight and he was able to stop the car at the divider.,Messages were left seeking comment from Tesla, which is based in Austin, Texas.,At first a Tesla service center gave Patel a cost estimate of