On Monday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter denying that his company’s automated driving systems (auto pilot) were involved in a fatal crash in Spring, Texas.
Two government agencies, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, are now investigating the accident.
What Did Elon Say?
Local police said in an interview with several media outlets, it appeared, no one was in the 2019 Tesla Model S tire when it steered off the road, hit a tree and burst into flames, according to their initial investigation.
Musk wrote in a tweet on Monday: “Data logs recovered so far show Autopilot was not enabled & this car did not purchase FSD. Moreover, standard Autopilot would require lane lines to turn on, which this street did not have.”FSD.
Autopilot In Tesla
Tesla sells its automated driving systems under the brand monikers Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, or FSD. It also releases a “beta” version of FSD software for some customers with a premium FSD option, costing $ 10,000.
Tesla Autopilot and FSD are not capable of controlling the electric vehicles in all normal driving circumstances, and the company’s owner’s manuals caution drivers to only use them with “active supervision.”
Autopilot, now commonplace in Tesla cars, does not always identify a lane marker – for example, it can confuse sealed cracks in the road or bike lanes with other lane markers.
The system can also be misused or abused by drivers. A young driver recently showed in a stunt video he shared on social media that he could leave the driver’s seat with his Tesla Autopilot system still in use.
Synopsis
Tesla chief executive Elon Musk on Monday denied that his company’s automated driving system was involved in a fatal crash in Spring, Texas, on Saturday.
Two government agencies, the NHTSA and the NTSB, are now investigating the accident along with local police.
No one has completed their thorough investigation, and their initial results are not yet available.
