Aftermarket driver assist under federal probe following fatal crashes

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened a new federal investigation into aftermarket driver-assist devices designed to augment a vehicle’s native advanced driver assistance systems, including systems from comma.ai. The agency’s Office of Defects Investigation says it knows of five crashes involving drivers using comma.ai devices, with two crashes resulting in three deaths and 11 injuries across four of the five incidents. NHTSA is also examining whether the systems can adequately detect a stopped vehicle in the vehicle’s path and which software versions were running at the time, noting at least two forks, including the fatal one using “FrogPilot.”