Self-Driving Tesla Slams Into Parked Patrol Car

Police said a Tesla was in self-driving mode when it crashed into a parked patrol vehicle in California, forcing an officer to jump out of the car's way. The Tesla's driver said he was on his phone at the time, KTLA reports. The Fullerton officer, who was managing traffic at the site of a fatal crash about 12:05am Thursday, was not hurt, per KNBC. The patrol car was parked perpendicularly to stop traffic. A police spokesman said the officer saw the Tesla headed toward him without slowing.

National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration reports that Tesla's autopilot technology caused 510 crashes, 14 of them fatal, between August 2022 and August 2023. The agency said an attentive driver could have prevented the crashes, per KNBC. The automaker's website warns that its full self-driving mode "does not make your vehicle autonomous." (More Tesla stories.)