The NHTSA clearly does not want to stop Autopilot from functioning, they want to harness the benefits of ADAS while mitigating the risks associated with drivers becoming inattentive when such systems are in use. People who follow AVs closely and discuss them a lot on here, we should all know the human-machine interface is a massive factor and would have been the focus of these investigations. The NHTSA doesn’t expect the systems to flawlessly detect and navigate around stopped first responders, the technology is nowhere near perfect and it won’t be for a long time, but there are benefits and there are currently risks.

The problem here, and what led to the upgrade from PE to EA, is the system apparently believing drivers are sufficiently engaged right up until the moment they crash. In the broader Autopilot investigation, only two drivers had received any warnings in the 5 minutes prior to the crash even though they were likely disengaged before, during, and after that measurement. The wheel torque requirement registers the drivers as having their hands on their wheel as they careen towards and eventually hit static objects.

Now another item to put into context here is Elon previously and incorrectly refuting the use of cabin cameras for eye tracking — that opinion very quietly slunk into the shadows and Tesla began building in the functionality.

Many new cars nowadays are rolling off the assembly line with IR cameras that track driver eye movement even when ADAS are not in use. If you turn on ADAS in those vehicles, additional checks and balances are activated.

How does Tesla fix this? Are the current cabin cameras up to the task? What about earlier Tesla vehicles on the road with AP but without cabin cameras? These are the things I would be wondering, because the NHTSA won’t try to stop Autopilot from functioning but they will want to research and build in ways to better measure and control driver engagement that is seriously lacking right now.

Despite the Tesla cabin cameras never being originally intended for this use, as Elon stated before in other tweets as well, their existence is a saving grace. If all Tesla vehicles were running Autopilot without cabin cameras, I think there would be a much higher risk of the functionality being severely hamstrung or disabled due to lack of an effective means of ensuring driver engagement.