Articles by David Shepardson

Regulators Try to Navigate Legal, Social, Safety Issues Raised by Autonomous Vehicles

In closed-door meetings last March, U.S. transportation regulators and others grappled with questions about whether police should have the power to disable self-driving cars and whether an automatic alert that a robo-taxi had been in a wreck could violate an …

Safety Probe of Tesla Crash Cites Battery Fire Risk

A Tesla Inc. Model S involved in a May 8 fatal high-speed crash in Florida reignited twice after firefighters extinguished a fire in the electric vehicle, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a preliminary report on Tuesday. The …

Police Say Uber Driver Was Streaming Hulu Before Self-Driving Car Crash in Arizona

Police in Tempe, Arizona said evidence showed the “safety” driver behind the wheel of a self-driving Uber was distracted and streaming a television show on her phone right up until about the time of a fatal accident in March, deeming …

Driver Had Hands off Wheel in Fatal Tesla Autopilot Crash

The driver of a Tesla Inc. Model X car using Autopilot did not have his hands on the steering wheel in the six seconds before a fatal crash in California in March, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said earlier …

Driver Had Hands off Wheel in Fatal Tesla Autopilot Crash in California

The driver of a Tesla Inc. Model X car using Autopilot did not have his hands on the steering wheel in the six seconds before a fatal crash in California in March, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday. …

GM Settles Suit with Motorcyclist Hit By Autonomous Vehicle in California

General Motors Co. agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a motorcyclist involved in a minor crash with one of its self-driving cars in San Francisco late last year, the U.S. automaker said on Friday. Oscar Nilsson sued GM in …

Tesla Hits Parked Police Vehicle in California, Driver Blames Autopilot

The driver of a Tesla Inc. Model S crashed into an unoccupied, parked police vehicle in Laguna Beach, Calif., on Tuesday and the driver told investigators the Tesla was in “Autopilot” mode at the time, police said. The driver suffered …

Uber Disabled Brake of Self-Driving Car in Arizona Fatal Crash

Uber had disabled an emergency braking system in a self-driving vehicle that struck and killed a woman in Arizona in March even though the car had identified the need to apply the brakes, the National Transportation Safety Board said in …

White House Hosts Meeting on Future of Artificial Intelligence

The White House plans to convene a meeting on Thursday on the future of artificial intelligence in U.S. industry with major companies including Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Oracle Corp. as well as senior government officials. …

U.S. Selects 10 Drone Test Projects

The U.S. Transportation Department’s 10 winning drone pilot projects aimed at spurring the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in a wide variety of fields do not include Amazon.com Inc. and China’s DJI, but do involve Alphabet Inc., Qualcomm Inc. and …