NHTSA in August opened a formal safety probe into Tesla’s Autopilot system in 765,000 U.S. vehicles after a series of crashes involving Tesla models and emergency vehicles.
Cummings has repeatedly expressed concerns about Tesla’s Autopilot feature. In 2019, she wrote on Twitter: “I have driven several Teslas — autopilot easily causes mode confusion, is unreliable and unsafe @NHTSArecalls should require @tesla to turn it off.”
NHTSA said Cummings was being named for a “temporary assignment” under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act Mobility Program.
Last week, NHTSA asked Tesla why it has not issued a recall to address software updates made to Autopilot system to improve the vehicles’ ability to detect emergency vehicles.
To date, NHTSA has identified 12 crashes that involved Tesla vehicles using the advanced driver-assistance systems and emergency vehicles. NHTSA said most of the incidents took place after dark.
