Tesla Autopilot and similar automated driving systems get ‘poor’ rating from prominent safety group

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which rates cars and SUVs for safety, examined so-called advanced driver assistance systems such as Tesla Autopilot and found them wanting.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which rates cars and SUVs for safety, examined so-called advanced driver assistance systems such as Tesla Autopilot and found them wanting. These systems combine different sensors and technologies to help a driver keep their vehicle in its lane and avoid hitting other vehicles in front and to the sides. Usually, these systems work only on highways. Some can even allow drivers to remove their hands from the steering wheel but all require drivers to pay attention to the road and vehicles around them at all times. Of the 14 systems tested by the agency, 11 earned a “poor” rating including Tesla’s Autopilot and so-called Full Self Driving systems. (Full Self Driving is not actually fully self driving but, unlike Autopilot and almost all other such systems, it is designed to work on city and suburban streets.) The organization also rated hands-free highway driving systems from Ford and Nissan as “poor.” General Motors’ hands-free system, Super Cruise, was rated as “marginal.” Only Lexus’s Teammate with Advanced Drive system received a rating of “acceptable.” Even that rating, though, is still one step below the Insurance Institute’s highest possible rating of good. “Some drivers may feel that partial automation makes long drives easier, but there is little evidence it makes driving safer,” Insurance Institute president David Harkey said in a statement. “As many high-profile crashes have illustrated, it can introduce new risks when systems lack appropriate safeguards.” The federal government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration doesn’t currently regulate these sorts of systems. That’s one reason the IIHS instituted these ratings, Harkey said in an interview with CNN.