Five Texas police officers have sued Tesla after a self-driving Model X car hit them during a traffic stop and sent them to the hospital

Five police officers are suing Tesla after they were injured by a self-driving Model X car that hit them during a traffic stop.

This is according to a study by The Wall Street Journal the Model X had hit a police car on February 27, 2021 while traveling at 54 mph in Texas.

It is alleged that the car’s disabled driver relied too much on the Model X’s autopilot system, which reportedly issued 150 warnings to take control of the vehicle for 34 minutes.

Footage obtained by the WSJ shows the dramatic footage of the car driving straight into the back of a police vehicle.

All five officers who were on the scene are now suing the car company after they were injured as a result of the collision.

They claim the autopilot function was directly responsible for the collision, but Tesla has said the driver was at fault and denies the autopilot is to blame.

The autopilot system in the car is programmed to take over driving duties, but the driver is still expected to remain alert and keep their hands on the wheel.

Attorney Tony Buzbee is representing the agents and originally filed the lawsuit in September 2021.

He told earlier I LOVE“These officers, these deputies, were very brave to bring this case to court and we’re going to hold Tesla accountable.”

Reports from the time indicated injuries ranged from abrasions to back injuries, one of which may have suffered a broken arm.

The system in the car verifies that the driver’s hands are indeed on the wheel, and police say he was able to apply enough torque to keep the autopilot going.

By the time the Autopilot system sees the car directly in front of the Tesla, there are only 2.5 seconds and 37 meters left to react.

According to the WSJ, the autopilot first tries to stop the Model X. Then it switches off in the expectation that an alert driver will take over.

This incident is one of 16 similar accidents currently under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Of the eight incident reports obtained by the WSJ, six occurred while emergency services lights were flashing.

Tesla has since updated its Autopilot software, but one of the investigations relates to a crash that occurred after the update.

New Tesla cars are now also equipped with internal cameras to monitor driver alertness.

In March of this year, it was ruled that a Tesla that drove into a fire truck, killing the driver, was on autopilot at the time.

Emergency services had to cut open the Tesla to remove the passenger after the fatal incident that left four Contra Costa County firefighters with minor injuries.

The truck had its lights on and was parked at an angle in northbound lanes of the highway to protect emergency responders in an earlier accident that left no injuries.

Elon Musk said in 2016 that the vehicle’s “Autopilot” system was “probably better” than a human driver, despite recent tests indicating that cars failed to detect mannequin children on multiple occasions.

An investigation into more than 830,000 of the company’s vehicles and its advertising claims led investigators to question whether Tesla misled consumers, investors and regulators about the feature.

Shortly before the crash in February, Tesla announced it would recall 363,000 of its vehicles, including the Model S, due to potential problems with their self-driving capabilities.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the Full Self-Driving Beta software allows the vehicle to “exceed speed limits.”