US regulators open probe into Tesla crash in Utah
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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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
