Tesla Car Crashes into Police Vehicle While in Autopilot Mode

A Tesla car crashed into a stationary police vehicle while on autopilot mode, Tuesday.

According to KTLA, the car crashed into a Laguna Beach police vehicle, “leaving the sedan’s driver injured.”

“The officer was not in the police SUV at the time but handling a call for service about 1,000 yards away,” they explained, adding, “The Tesla driver, a 65-year-old man, sustained minor injuries, but declined transport to a hospital, the sergeant said.”

Photographs of the accident show that both cars were heavily damaged.

This morning a Tesla sedan driving outbound Laguna Canyon Road in “autopilot” collides with a parked @LagunaBeachPD unit. Officer was not in the unit at the time of the crash and minor injuries were sustained to the Tesla driver. #lagunabeach #police #tesla pic.twitter.com/7sAs8VgVQ3

— Laguna Beach PD PIO (@LBPD_PIO_45) May 29, 2018

In a statement, Laguna Beach Police Department Sgt. Jim Cota declared, “Thankfully there was not an officer at the time in the police car… The police car is totaled.”

“It’s something that we’re going to have to work on, whether it be with Tesla themselves, or we’re going to have to get into more specifics and find out why this is occurring,” he continued.

In their own statement, Tesla claimed the company “has always been clear that autopilot doesn’t make the car impervious to all accidents, and before a driver can use Autopilot, they must accept a dialogue box which states that ‘Autopilot is designed for use on highways that have a center divider and clear markings.’”

Tesla’s autopilot feature has been attributed to several accidents.

Last month, Tesla blamed the deceased driver in a Tesla autopilot accident, expressing that Tesla makes it “extremely clear that Autopilot requires the driver to be alert and have hands on the wheel.”

Autopilot crashes have been reported in Texas and Utah.