A Tesla Model S car crashed into an unoccupied, parked police vehicle in Laguna Beach, California, on Tuesday, with the driver of the Tesla model to blame the car's "Autopilot" system.

Autopilot is a semi-autonomous technology that the company says is a form of advanced cruise control.

"Tesla has always been clear that Autopilot doesn't make the car impervious to all accidents," the company said in a statement after the accident and could not immediately confirm the driver's report that the vehicle was in Autopilot mode.

Several crashes and fire incidents involving Tesla vehicles this year has been a near constant headache for Chief Executive Elon Musk, who boasts that his company's vehicles are among the safest in the industry.

Earlier this month, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it was sending a team to investigate the crash of a Tesla vehicle in South Jordan, Utah. The driver was traveling at 60 miles (97 km) per hour when the Model S smashed into a fire truck stopped at a red light, according to police.

NHTSA is also investigating a fatal crash in March that involved a Tesla Model X using Autopilot that struck a highway divider. The agency is also probing the January crash of a Tesla vehicle apparently traveling in Autopilot that struck a parked fire truck.