However, the US Consumer Watchdog is now calling on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to tighten legislation regarding how such cars are allowed on to the roads and to fully examine this particular accident and use its findings to steer future laws.
Advertisement
Federal highway officials are investigating a fatal accident involving a Tesla Model S that was operating in Autopilot mode which failed to automatically activate the car’s brakes leading it to crash into a tractor trailer. Just one month earlier, Brown had credited the Autopilot system for preventing a collision on an interstate.
According to reports from the Florida Highway Patrol, Joshua Brown was using the Autopilot system on his Tesla Model S when the vehicle collided with a truck.
“It was still playing when he died and snapped a telephone pole a quarter mile down the road”, Baressi said, acknowledging he didn’t see the movie play, but heard the dialogue.
The top of the vehicle was “torn off by the force of the collision”, according to a police report in the local Levy County Journal.
An 11-year veteran of the U.S. Navy and a member of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, known as SEAL Team Six, Brown later established a technology company called Nexu Innovations that provides wireless Internet mesh services, custom product development and 3D printing services.
The driver was later identified as Joshua Brown, the owner of a technology consulting firm in OH, by the Florida Highway Patrol and confirmed by the New York Times.
The probe of the autopilot system affects 25,000 Tesla Model S vehicles, Reuters reported. He published a video of the incident online.
On his YouTube page, devoted nearly entirely to his 2015 Tesla, Brown called his Model-S, “hands down the best vehicle I have ever owned”.
“We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his family and friends”, the company said.
Tesla noted that its autopilot feature is disabled by default and the system is new technology and still in a public beta phase.
Tesla co-founder Elon Musk touted the video April 17 on Twitter. Brown died at the scene.
Recent reports from Reuters confirm that a portable DVD player was in the crashed vehicle. “The car’s doing it all itself”, he said in one, smiling as he took his hands from the steering wheel.
Autopilot makes frequent checks, making sure the driver’s hands are on the wheel, and it gives visual and audible alerts if hands aren’t detected, and it gradually slows the auto until a driver responds, the statement said.
In addition to its cameras, the Model S has radar sensors that could have spotted the trailer. Had the vehicle been heading for the front or back wheels, the system would have engaged the brakes.
Following the crash, the NHTSA announced that it has now opened a preliminary evaluation into the performance of Autopilot. And beyond driverless cars, how will artificial intelligence change the world? In a survey released last month by the University of MI, two-thirds of drivers said they are moderately or very concerned about riding in a self-driving vehicle. While the same statistic is 94 million miles before a crash for USA. “This will be a big hit to Tesla’s reputation because the automaker has been seen as a leader in both passenger safety and advanced technology”.
Last fall, Ford, for instance, recalled 37,000 F-150 pickups because they braked with nothing in the way. Still, experts say some crashes and deaths will continue occurring.
Advertisement
Jim Holder, editorial director of magazines Autocar and What Car?, said this type of technology is not expected to completely eradicate accidents.
