“Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor-trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied”, Tesla said in a blog posting on June 30.
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The Tesla Model S involved in the first fatal Autopilot crash was speeding at the time of the incident, according the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report.
“Mobileye’s work with Tesla will not extend beyond the EyeQ3”, Mobileye said in a statement, referring to its chips that provide image analysis for Tesla’s Autopilot technology, which helps drivers steer and stay in lanes.
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The NTSB said Joshua Brown, 40, of OH, was driving at 74 miles per hour with the car’s semi-autonomous driving system engaged at the time of the crash that took his life. Those features are part of the vehicle’s Autopilot self-driving system, but the NTSB report does not mention the system.
A Tesla test vehicle was driving 119kph on a Florida highway with its autopilot on when it slid under a tractor-trailer, killing the car’s driver in a crash that the auto industry fears will dampen interest in the coming generation of driverless cars.
But Tesla isn’t backing down, and believes autopilot is safer than traditional driving.
The factory is crucial to meeting Tesla’s goal of going from a niche maker of luxury vehicles to a full-line maker of affordable cars, pickups and semi trucks.
“I think in a partnership, we need to be there on all aspects of how the technology is being used, and not simply providing technology and not being in control of how it is being used”, Mobileye chief technical officer Amnon Shashua said while speaking to analysts after the company released its second-quarter earnings.
Joshua Brown’s Model S after the crash.
Neither Mobileye nor Tesla would say which company initiated the move. A lawyer for the truck driver did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. Moreover, it seems supplier Mobileye is moving on to another autonomous auto project with BMW.
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Tesla has eschewed the laser-based lidar sensors that many manufacturers are incorporating into their self-driving systems, electing instead to focus on cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors.
