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
If you have to sit with both hands on the wheel and be alert ready to take over control I really fail to see the point. Why would you not just steer the vehicle at the same time then?
Oh i know and so far, tesla has proven to be safer than people. Im just curious if another fatal crash happened tomorrow, how would tesla still advertise the safety of their product? Like “yea, statistically, it still crashes more than people do, but its definetly safe”
GlenBullivant i forgot to hit the reply button
Even though someone died: good..
The tractor needs to be more careful or the man should have been paying attention just in case
The guy listens to audio books by the sound of it so that could explain the hp noise though it still wouldn’t surprise me if someone was watching a movie … be interesting to see the outcome of the investigation
Ok I feel bad about the person’s death but why do you rely something to much that is just new people. Its not like “Hey I just got this thing and it is reliable.” the next thing you know after a few uses guess what the thing breaks down.
I feel bad for the person who died but whether or not the world was going to accept it everyone sort of knew that this would happen. There are plenty of videos of this thin crashing trying to park itself I don’t see how you could trust it to then drive completely by itself.
There has only been one instance of it crashing while using summon, 0 with auto park. You do not own a Tesla and obviously didn’t do your research so refrain from these inaccurate comments. The Mercedes-Benz’s lane assist is a safety hazard as it bounces of the lines on the road and ultimately drives off the road for no reason, same with BMW, although BMW’s system is slightly better than MB’s. It was the drivers fault the collision happened. The Tesla does not prevent crashes with high up objects, because, as I mentioned earlier, the AEB and Emergency Response systems rely on the sensors and radar which are in the front bumper, the camera is mostly for keeping the lanes in order. Tesla never says it’s okay for you to let go of the steering wheel and the car automatically pulls itself over if your hands are not detected on the wheel. The Tesla has saved me and my family from a greater collision before, several times. 99% of the time, it works flawlessly.
Stop making uneducated comments. They help no one.
You see dont trust your life to a computer
This concludes that dont trust machines