A photo from a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the May 7, 2016 fatal crash involving the driver of a Tesla Model S sedan and a tractor-trailer near Willitson, Florida, depicting where the Tesla struck the side of the trailer.
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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.
“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. Florida police said the roof of the vehicle struck the underside of the trailer and the auto passed beneath.
NTSB said the vehicle’s system performance data indicated the Model S was traveling at a speed of 74 miles per hour just before impact. The crash was the first with a known fatality in more than 130 million miles of Autopilot driving, according to Tesla. “Tesla is laser-focused on achieving full self-driving capability on one integrated platform with an order of magnitude greater safety than the average manually driven vehicle”.
On the other hand, following Mobileye’s breakup announcement, the Wall Street Journal reports that Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk issued a statement, saying that the split from Mobileye does not affect the future of Tesla’s autopilot development.
The vehicle is equipped with automatic emergency braking. The NTSB has not yet determined the probable cause for the crash. The NTSB team will continue to investigate the crash and produce a final report in about a year. Mobileye declared that the end of the collaboration with Tesla electric cars maker wouldn’t have a material impact on company earnings.
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Tesla earlier this month acknowledged the crash and said its sensors failed to pick up the white side of the truck against a brightly lit sky. Joshua Brown, 45, of OH was driving a 2015 Tesla that collided with a 53-foot semitrailer that was being hauled by a 2014 Freightliner Cascadia. That crash has triggered an initial probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and wider scrutiny of semiautonomous-vehicle technology.
