A self-driving Tesla was operating on fully automatic cruise control when it crashed into the back of a slower moving truck on the A1 motorway near Deventer on Tuesday morning the Telegraaf reported on Wednesday..

There was only slight damage to the car from the accident which took place in the left lane of the road. The driver of the truck, operated by load haulage firm Van Opijnen of Deventer, said he moved into the passing lane to avoid the erratic driving of another lorry.

He said he saw the Tesla in his rear view mirror and reckoned the driver had time to reduce his speed.

Jan Groothuis, the driver of the Tesla, said that was not the case. ‘I was driving along at 130 or 140 kph and he was going 80 kph.’ The Tesla Autopilot sysyem is designed to avoid these head-end collisions.

But Tesla has had problems since its launch in 2015. Tesla advises drivers to keep their hands on the wheel at all time and to pay attention to the road, but this is not always the case.

The police will not follow up on the case and Tesla is investigating to see whether the autopilot was operational. All Tesla products are constantly online with the manufacturer.