A Tesla Driver Has Died In The First Ever Fatal Crash For A Self-Driven Car
Tesla has revealed that a Model S driver died in an accident on 7 May while Autopilot was activated, in what’s thought to be the first fatal crash involving an autonomous vehicle. The driver - 40-year-old Joshua D. Brown - was on a divided highway in Williston, Florida, when a tractor pulled out, at which point neither Brown nor Autopilot reacted.
The Model S passed under the tractor’s trailer, with the bottom of the trailer hitting the windscreen. The car then continued down the road, before leaving the highway and hitting a fence. He died at the scene.
In a statement released on Thursday, Tesla said that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has started a “preliminary evaluation” into the performance of Autopilot during the crash. “This is the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles where Autopilot was activated,” Tesla said, adding, “Among all vehicles in the US, there is a fatality every 94 million miles.”
Brown was well known in the Tesla community, and just a month before the fatal crash had posted a video on YouTube (below) of Autopilot successfully averting an accident. The video quickly clocked a million views.
Tesla’s Autopilot is at the moment intended to be a driver assist, and more of a ‘semi-autonomous’ mode that requires the driver to be holding the steering wheel at all times. In the statement Tesla notes that “Autopilot is getting better all the time, but it is not perfect and still requires the driver to remain alert,” but that hasn’t stopped some well-documented abuses of the system. It’s been heavily criticised in some corners for lulling its users into a false sense of security. Earlier this year, a senior Volvo engineer slammed Autopilot, labelling it an “Unsupervised wannabe” that “Gives you the impression that it’s doing more than it is.”
At this early stage of the investigation, it’s not known exactly why Brown didn’t brake himself. Tesla’s statement speculates that he simply did not see “The white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky,” however in a report in the Associated Press, the 62-year-old driver of the tractor claimed to have heard one of the Harry Potter films playing from the car at the crash scene. Tesla responded to the claims, stating that it isn’t possible to watch videos on the main screen found in the Model S.
Find out more about how Autopilot works by watching our video below:
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
And that folks, is why cruise control is good enough for me currently
Thats really sad.. Hope tesla can pull through and learn how to prevent that issue from ever happening again.
Well the only reason that auto pilot would be the blame would be if the car ran a stop sign or light on its own. If the tractor pulled out in front of him it’s not the cars fault. Plus since the trailer was high enough to only hit the windshield what if the car maybe it couldn’t detect the trailer since it was to high in the air. Does anyone now what was done to the tractor driver?
Ah, somebody who makes sense for once! The Model S has 4 ultrasonic sensors around the front bumper and one radar below the nosecone. The AEB and Collision Avoidance systems as far as I know rely on the radar and sensors, not so much on the camera at the top of the windscreen.
Stupid people first gun issues then vape issues then this stuff
I like the idea of a car that can assist you when your driving but cars that drive them self thats some terminator crap.
No, that’s innovation.
thats sad
They called the system autopilot, this thing its mainly their fault.
Musk, it’s better to not apologise at all, than making that “apology”
You’re kidding, right? The driver is responsible for the car. The Tesla isn’t responsible for the car. The driver did not react soon enough, therefore the car crashed.
Where are those stupid Eco-Social-Pro-Electric-And-Autonomus-Car people now ?
Here. It was the drivers responsibility to prevent a collision, not the car’s.
Shocking
Soooo you’re saying… that there’s a chance..?? 🤔