Tesla on autopilot hits Michigan state trooper’s patrol car

A self-driving Tesla automobile struck a Michigan state trooper’s vehicle early Wednesday morning.

State police told local news affiliate WLNS 6 that the crash occurred Wednesday just after 1 a.m. local time. No injuries were reported, but photos of the scene showed major damage to the trooper’s cruiser.

Police told WLNS that the officer involved in the crash was investigating reports that a separate vehicle had struck a deer on Michigan’s Interstate 96 and had his warning lights on at the time of the incident. It wasn’t initially clear if the trooper had been inside the vehicle at the time.

A 22-year-old driver was cited for driving without a license and failing to move over for an emergency vehicle, the news station reported.

The Hill has reached out to Tesla for comment.

News of the crash comes just a day after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was investigating a crash involving a Tesla that became wedged under a tractor-trailer earlier this month; the driver in that vehicle was using either autopilot or the car’s “full self-driving” mode, according to the agency. That crash resulted in the hospitalization of two occupants of the vehicle.

The company’s CEO, Elon Musk, has made lofty goals for Tesla’s self-driving software and said in 2019 that the company would have “1 million autonomous robo-taxis” on the road by the end of 2020, a goal the company did not meet.