In California, there is another fatal Tesla accident. A driver of the Tesla Model X died when an electric car hit a barrier on a highway. The vehicle caught fire at the scene of the accident. A preliminary investigation has already been carried out, including whether the AutoPilot in the car has been switched on or off.
One more fatal accident in Tesla with AutoPilot turned on
In the accident, Walter Wong, a 38-year-old Apple engineer who was behind the wheel of Tesla, died. Now the company has confirmed that AutoPilot was on during the crash. In the special comment, Tesla stated that the function was enabled, as were the speed control settings, which were set to be minimal. A few seconds before hitting the railing, visual and audible signals were given to AutoPilot to inform the driver to put his hands back on the wheel.
But this has not been the case. He was about five seconds and 150 meters away from the railing that he could see all the time. However, the records of the vehicle show that the driver has not taken any action to change the car’s direction. Sadly Tesla did not give any reasons why AutoPilot did not detect this barrier that separated the belts on the motorway.
This isn’ t the first case of a deadly crash with Tesla in the lead role, and probably not the last. The AutoPilot system is not perfect because Tesla has long recognized that it helps you drive safer but cannot replace human. But the problem is that it never replaces a human being, it is more of a driving aid. For many drivers, this seems to be forgotten and is treated as a 5th degree of vehicle autonomy. This mistake, as you can see, can be tragic.