(Bloomberg) -- A Texas man said the Autopilot mode onhis Tesla Model S sent him off the road and into a guardrail,bloodying his nose and shaking his confidence in the technology. Hedoesn’t plan to sue the electric-car maker, but his insurancecompany might.

Mark Molthan, the driver, readily admits that he was not payingfull attention. Trusting that Autopilot could handle the route asit had done before, he reached into the glove box to get a clothand was cleaning the dashboard seconds before the collision, hesaid. The car failed to navigate a bend on Highway 175 in ruralKaufman, Texas, and struck a cable guardrail multiple times,according to the police report of the Aug. 7 crash.

Autopilot missed curve

“I used Autopilot all the time on that stretch of the highway,”Molthan, 44, said in a phone interview. “But now I feel like thisis extremely dangerous. It gives you a false sense of security. I’mnot ready to be a test pilot. It missed the curve and drovestraight into the guardrail. The car didn’t stop — it actuallycontinued to accelerate after the first impact into theguardrail.”

Molthan’s experience — while not as serious as a fatalcrash that federal regulators are investigating — stillhighlights the challenges ahead in determining who is to blame whensemi-autonomous vehicles are involved in accidents. Insuranceclaims involving Tesla’s Autopilot are largely uncharted territory,in part because driver behavior is still a contributing factor.

Cozen O’Connor, the law firm that represents Molthan’sauto-insurance carrier, a unit of ChubbLtd., said it sent Tesla Motors Inc. a notice letter requestingjoint inspection of the vehicle, which has been deemed a totalloss. Tesla said it’s looking into the Texas crash. Tesla stressesthat Autopilot is only an assist feature — that drivers needto keep their hands on the wheel and be prepared to take over atany time.

Fresh focus

Tesla’s driver-assistance features, which the company callsAutopilot, have been in the spotlight in the wake of a fatalcrash in Florida on May 7. Probes by the National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration and the National Transportation Safety Board of theFlorida crash are ongoing. After non-fatal accidents in Montanaand Pennsylvania, Consumer Reports called on Tesla to requiredrivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel and to change thefeature’s name to avoid confusion.

Scrutiny around Autopilot is heightened in part because thefederal government is drafting guidelines, expected to be releasedthis summer, for automakers racing to bring fully self-driving carsto market. Ford Motor Co., while announcing plans to produce afully autonomous vehicle for use by ride-hailing services thisweek, said it would avoid adding incremental technologies becausethey leave the driver too detached — in “no-man’s land”— to take over in a dangerous situation.

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This photo provided by the NTSB via the Florida HighwayPatrol shows the Tesla Model S that was being driven by JoshauBrown,who was killed, when the Tesla sedan crashed while inself-driving mode on May 7, 2016. The National TransportationSafety Board said in a preliminary report on July 26 that the TeslaModel S was traveling at 74 mph in a 65-mph zone on a dividedhighway in Williston, Fla., near Gainesville, just before hittingthe side of a tractor-trailer. (NTSB via Florida Highway Patrol viaAP)

While Ford and Alphabet Inc.’s Google espouse an all-or-nothingapproach, Tesla has introduced driver-assist technology in “beta”form for continuous improvement and frequent over-the-air softwareupdates. Tesla’s website stresses that active sensors, GPS andhigh-resolution digital maps help the vehicle to stay within lanes,and that “real time feedback from the Tesla fleet ensures thesystem is continually learning and improving upon itself.”

Automakers including General Motors Co., Honda Motor Co. andDaimler AG have also pushed to add features that take over some ofthe work but require the driver to remain responsible.

Safety first

About 35,200 people were killed in U.S. auto accidents in 2015,according to NHTSA. The overwhelming majority of vehicle accidents— 94 percent — are due to human error. Safety regulatorswant to improve human behavior while promoting technology that willprotect people in crashes and help prevent them from occurring.

Fans of Tesla’s Autopilot bemoan that there’s no database oflives saved or accidents avoided by the technology.

“I’m disgusted that the only time Autopilot is in the news iswhen there are crashes,” said Diana Becker, 55, of Los Angeles, ina phone interview. “Nobody hears about the accidents that don’thappen.”

Becker recently completed a 27-day road trip throughoutthe West with her two children. She credits the Autopilot inher Model X with saving her family from colliding with a driver whocrossed suddenly in front of them.

“I drove 400 miles a day on our road trip, and Autopilot was mysecond pair of eyes,” said Becker. “I depend on it.”

A Missouri man who suffered a pulmonary embolism last monthrelied on Tesla’s Autopilot to help him drive at least 20 miles tothe nearest hospital, Slate reported.

Molthan, the Texas driver, also owns a Model X sportutility vehicle. He said he’s a big fan of Palo Alto,California-based Tesla and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, buthis next car won’t be another Model S.

Related: Pennsylvania State Police cite Tesla owner forcareless driving

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