Tesla Inc.’s safety woes continued to mount Monday as the Chinese ride-hailing giant and growing autonomous vehicle competitor Didi Chuxing Technology Co. was reported to have been given permission to test its self-driving cars on American roads.

In the latest drama for Tesla, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company executives rejected a safety proposal by its engineers. The proposal addressed its driver attention issue that has been attributed to multiple accidents, but the company nixed it reportedly because of increased cost and a perceived lack of benefit.

The report claimed that the Tesla engineers had suggested adding sensors that would monitor whether drivers had their hands on the wheel of the given Tesla vehicle as well as whether they had their eyes on the road both before and after the rollout of autopilot. The report also said those very same engineers expressed direct concern, at an executive level, that there “weren’t enough safeguards to ensure drivers remained attentive” without the additional features.

Two Tesla owners are known to have died while using the autopilot feature. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration cleared Tesla in the first case but only on the grounds of driver error — specifically that the driver of the vehicle should have been paying attention to the road. The second case, still ongoing and subject to dispute, has yet to be resolved but did also involve a fatal accident of a Tesla vehicle with autopilot engaged in what may prove to be a case of driver inattention.

If the Journal report is correct, and Tesla knew all along that not only was driver attention an issue but could have implemented additional features to address it, that could clearly be a bad look for the company.

Tesla denied the report. Musk said on Twitter that “This is false. Eyetracking rejected for being ineffective, not for cost. WSJ fails to mention that Tesla is safest car on road, which would make article ridiculous. Approx 4X better than avg.”

Both Tesla and Uber Technologies Inc. continue to have issues with autonomous vehicle technology, but now they’re facing another serious player that’s coming to American roads shortly.

Didi Chuxing, known as China’s Uber, gained permission to test its autonomous vehicles May 10, according to CNBC. Didi had set up an autonomous vehicle lab in Silicon Valley in March 2017 and, like Uber, has broad ambitions eventually to replace human drivers with self-driving cars.

Although it’s not a household name in the U.S., Didi is the world’s most valuable startup, having overtaken Uber in January. It may be somewhat behind Waymo in terms of development, since the Alphabet Inc. company announced a full commercial rollout of a driverless ride-hailing service in Phoenix only last week.

Still, Didi’s valuation and ambition cannot be underestimated. Didi has also signed technology partnerships with various car makers as well, similar to deals Waymo has made. And in the race to deliver fully autonomous vehicles, Tesla — despite being the first to market with something close to a self-driving car using its own technologies — also also could be the first to fall.

Photo: NTSB/Wikimedia Commons