San Francisco, May 17: US safety regulators have launched investigation into a crash in Utah that occurred when a Tesla Model S plowed into a fire department vehicle while it was on "autopilot" mode, the media reported.

The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration sent a team of special crash investigators to investigate the May 11 crash, the Fortune reported on Wednesday.

The 28-year-old female driver of the Tesla vehicle admitting she was looking at her phone prior to the collision, according to the police.

Data from the vehicle showed that the driver repeatedly cancelled and then re-engaged features of the semi-autnonomous driving system "autopilot", according to Tesla technicians.

"When using Autopilot, drivers are continuously reminded of their responsibility to keep their hands on the wheel and maintain control of the vehicle at all times," a Tesla spokeswoman was quoted as saying.

The driver had turned on the "autosteer" and "cruise control" features about 80 seconds prior to the crash and taken her hands off the wheel, Tesla officials were quoted as saying to police on Wednesday by the Guardian.

But despite several high-profile autopilot crashes, including a fatal collision in California, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has insisted that his technology is safer than traditional cars, the report added.

 

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Bengaluru (PTI): The South Western Railway on Saturday announced a series of special trains, in coordination with Central, South Eastern and Southern Railways, to clear stranded passengers following large-scale IndiGo flight cancellations across the country.

The special services will operate between December 6 and 10 on high-demand routes, including Bengaluru–Chennai, Bengaluru–Pune, Yesvantpur–Hazrat Nizamuddin, Shalimar–Yelahanka and Ernakulam–Yelahanka, officials said.

According to an official statement, SWR will run Train No. 06255/06256 between Chennai Egmore and KSR Bengaluru, 06257/06258 between Bengaluru and MGR Chennai Central, 06259/06260 between Yesvantpur and Hazrat Nizamuddin, and 06263/06264 between Bengaluru and Pune.

ALSO READ: Indigo flights chaos: SCR to run special trains to clear passenger rush

Central Railway will operate Train No. 01413/01414 between Pune and Bengaluru, while South Eastern Railway will run Train No. 08073/08074 between Shalimar and Yelahanka. Southern Railway will operate Train No. 06147/06148 between Ernakulam and Yelahanka, the statement said.

Railways has advised passengers to check updated timings on its official channels and arrive early at stations.

For at least five days in a row, IndiGo flight operations have been significantly disrupted, with a large number of cancellations and delays causing hardships to thousands of passengers. In many cases, baggage has been misplaced.