Second Tesla involved in Autonomous Car Crash in Two Months

Posted on August 24, 2016

A second crash involving a Tesla autonomous car using the Autopilot feature – Tesla’s software which controls steering, braking, lane changes and speed adjustments – is being investigated in the US.

In Pennsylvania, a driver and his passenger were injured when a Tesla Model X vehicle crashed into a battier, swerved into another lane and overturned. It follows an accident in Williston, Florida, which was the first reported fatality of a motorist in a autonomous car.

Former Navy SEAL Joshua Brown, 40, died on 7 May after his autonomous car crashed into another vehicle. Cameras on the Tesla Model S sedan are understood to have failed to distinguish between the white side on an articulated lorry and the bright sky. It did not automatically apply the brakes and crashed into the lorry as it turned left at a highway intersection.

Responding to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s decision to open a preliminary evaluation into the performance of Autopilot during the accident, Tesla said: “This is the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles where Autopilot was activated. Among all vehicles in the US, there is a fatality every 94 million miles. Worldwide, there is a fatality approximately every 60 million miles.”

To turn on Autopilot (which is disabled by default), drivers must first acknowledge that is an “assist feature”, said Tesla. They must keep their hands on the steering wheel and be prepared to take over control of the vehicle. If the driver’s hands are not detected on the wheel, the vehicle slows down until hands-on is identified.

Tesla recognised that while its Autopilot technology is always improving “it is not perfect” and the driver must remain alert. “Based on the information we have now, we have to reason to believe that Autopilot had anything to do with this accident,” Tesla told BBC News after the second crash.

Self-driving car trials are underway in the UK in Bristol, Coventry, Greenwich and Milton Keynes. In the Queen’s speech in May, the government announced that the Modern Transport Bill would provide for legislation to make the UK ready to pioneer autonomous cars.