“Tesla’s response: ‘Based on the information we have now, we have no reason to believe that Autopilot had anything to do with this accident'”.
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The NHTSA says on Twitter that it is now investigating a second crash involving a Tesla Model X on July 1, on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Tesla has said the car’s semi-automated autopilot system was on when the vehicle crashed. The Detroit Free Press reports that Albert Scaglione and his son-in-law Tim Yanke were involved in a crash in which Scaglione’s Model X hit a guard rail “off the right side of the roadway and hit the concrete median after crossing over the eastbound lanes”. According to federal regulators, preliminary reports show that the crash occurred when a semi-trailer rig turned left in front of Brown’s Model S vehicle that was in Autopilot mode at a highway intersection. According to Tesla’s review of logs, it stated that the accelerator pedal was suddenly increased to 100%, which indicated that the driver probably mistook the “gas” pedal for the brakes. According to Tesla, it was the first known fatality in more than 130 million miles of Autopilot driving.
Tesla explicitly insists Autopilot is meant for drivers to keep their hands on the wheel, and be ready to take control, passing the responsibility on to the driver.
The group called on Tesla to “immediately disable the autopilot feature” on all its cars “until it can be proven to be safe” in a Thursday letter to Tesla Chief Executive and Product Architect Elon Musk.
The windshield was ripped off the Model S after it ploughed into the side of a truck on a divided highway, and the damage meant the auto was unable to transmit data to Tesla.
Adding to the problems is the fact that Tesla’s churning out more cars, but struggling to deliver them to owners. “If autopilot can ultimately be shown to meet safety standards and is then redeployed, you must pledge to be liable if anything goes wrong when the self-driving system is engaged”.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have opened an investigation into the accident.
Tesla vehicle have the ability to send data back to the automaker regarding their operation and condition.
Tesla responded by saying that the Autopilot system failed to distinguish between the white paint and the clear bright sky, which led to the fatal result.
Fortune Magazine published two reports alleging a May 7 wreck killing Model S owner Joshua Brown was “material” information that should have been disclosed by Tesla before selling more than billion of stock in a public offering at a price of 5 per share.
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Neither the laptop nor a DVD player also found in the vehicle was running after the crash, said Sergeant Kim Montes of the Florida Highway Patrol.
