Tesla Driver On Autopilot Nearly Crashes Trying To Recreate Fatal Crash
(CBS SF) – After a Tesla driver using the company's "Autopilot" system was killed on a Bay Area freeway, another Tesla driver nearly crashed in what is claimed to be an attempt to recreate the scenario of the crash.
Electrek reported on a video showing a driver using the semi-autonomous driving feature on a Chicago-area freeway that splits into two. As the car approaches the split, the car heads straight into the barrier dividing the two roads, but the driver was able to stop in time.
The driver said the vehicle had the latest version of the automaker's Autopilot system.
On March 23rd, 38-year-old Walter Huang of Foster City was killed when his Model X SUV crashed at the interchange between southbound Highway 101 and Southbound 85 in Mountain View. Tesla said the vehicle involved in the Mountain View crash had Autopilot engaged.
"In the moments before the collision, which occurred at 9:27 a.m. on Friday, March 23rd, Autopilot was engaged with the adaptive cruise control follow-distance set to minimum. The driver had received several visual and one audible hands-on warning earlier in the drive and the driver's hands were not detected on the wheel for six seconds prior to the collision. The driver had about five seconds and 150 meters of unobstructed view of the concrete divider with the crushed crash attenuator, but the vehicle logs show that no action was taken," the company said in a statement.
The automaker went on to say that the crash was worsened due to a highway safety barrier that was crushed in a prior accident.
The National Transportation Safety Bureau is investigating the crash, but has criticized the automaker for releasing information pertaining to the collision.
