The first-known fatality involving Tesla’s Autopilot system has been reported, prompting the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to open a preliminary investigation into the Tesla Model S that was involved in the incident. The safety regulators will determine if the system worked according to expectations.
An excerpt from a posting on Tesla’s official website describes the May 7 incident – “the vehicle was on a divided highway with Autopilot engaged when a tractor trailer drove across the highway perpendicular to the Model S. Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied.”
As a result, the Model S passed under the tall height of the trailer, with the bottom of the trailer colliding with the windshield of the electric vehicle (EV), resulting in the death of the Tesla driver. A police report in the Levy County Journal said the top of the vehicle “was torn off by the force of the collision.”
Frank Baressi, 62, the driver of the tractor trailer told Associated Press that the Tesla driver was “playing Harry Potter on the TV screen” and driving quickly when the incident occured. “It (the movie) was still playing when he died and snapped a telephone pole a quarter mile down the road,” Baressi said.
According to the company, if the Model S had impacted the front or rear of the trailer, its crash safety system would likely have prevented serious injury. Tesla explains that the Autopilot feature found in its vehicles is disabled by default, and requires the driver to acknowledge that is still in a public beta phase before it can be enabled.
Furthermore, Autopilot is described as an assist feature that still requires the driver to keep his or her hands on the steering wheel at all times, in the event of a situation where the driver immediately needs to take corrective measures.
Reports also revealed that the Tesla driver killed in the incident is a 40-year-old man from Ohio by the name of Joshua Brown. Brown had recently uploaded a dashcam recording that demonstrated how the Autopilot system on his Model S managed to avoid a side collision from taking place, while he was listening to an audiobook.
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Ini mesti salah Takata juga
All the dislikes must be from Albert
Bashers are so marvelous, first they created Volvo of Asia when noone said before and now salah takata when noone said before too.
Getting their minds so twisted you only get your heart blackened, pity.
Tesla… is Skynet.
John Connor, we need you!
Albert kata jangan persoal his foreign overlords technologi. This mesti semua user problem.
You called me?
And yet, Malaysian Government ordered more than 10 units of this car, each costing nearly RM1 million for testing!
Bring in more.. i tot u wanna kill p1 what..
Is it true?
Volvo was correct all along when they said Tesla’s Autopilot is not a truly automated system. Perhaps the test driver got overconfident with the system’s abilities and let his guard down.
This is the same driver (Joshua Brown) that uploaded his dashcam, showing the prowess of the autopilot saving him from a near-collision WHILE he is meddling with his audiobook. His hand were off the wheels. Guess he trusted the Autopilot since it has “saved” him that time, that he may be facebook-ing while this happened. God knows best…. RIP to the driver, and good luck to Tesla in defending against possible lawsuit.
volvo is the most trustworthy car company in the Universe!!! that’s why china got it.
The article said even the driver couldn’t notice it. But heck, the driver’s dead, how to know he didn’t saw it?
Probably because the car’s onboard computer did not record any braking or swerving done by car or by driver. But kinda weird that the car did not notice the trailer. Is it visual based like Subaru or radar based, which will not be affected by light or whatever visual blocks? Anyways, rest in peace to the driver.
Well well well, I’m not surprised. This is what happened when you put too much trust on technology. Nothing beats the human brain!
tesla will be sued like hell since this happened in US…btw, car is different from airplane which has no lanes in the sky…
“Tesla explains that the Autopilot feature found in its vehicles is disabled by default, and requires the driver to acknowledge that is still in a public beta phase before it can be enabled.
Furthermore, Autopilot is described as an assist feature that still requires the driver to keep his or her hands on the steering wheel at all times, in the event of a situation where the driver immediately needs to take corrective measures.”
Autopilot is far from perfect. We imagine we can have all these autonomous driving system by 2020. But no. Maybe in the 2050, you can have that. But, by then, you might as well having flying/hover cars already
my TRD vios hilux is the most safety car..because dont have so complicated high end technology… 2airbag ABS is more than enough..why need VSC is the owner use 2nd tyre with MFG 0103 with crack somemore.. VSC take part but no tyre grip same like no VSC..
Even if autopilot wasn’t on. The accident would still have happened. A pependicular runaway lorry from the other lane? Tell me you can avoid that.
Tesla, want to run fast before learn how to crawl.
in b4:
All hail skynet!
Ini semua salah treler puteh. Gov must ban all treler puteh.
Albert kata jangan persoal the tech of his foreign overlords or he will potong our kepla to up his tali barutness.
Dun care if not related at all, just bash P1/ BN/ Gov.
aaaah, just another lab rat less on the road.
This is juat a lesson who own & willing 2 buy & use this type of so call “autopilot disabled by default” failed car.
Anyway, the dead guy Joshua brown died happily in his dream car.
Don’t worry, I’m still alive.
In the future, automated driving will still save more lives on average, but this is a strong reminder that Murphy’s Law is still very relevant. Like crime and disease, we can greatly reduce road fatalities, but we may never truly prevent it altogether.
it only works well if all vehicles on the road are fitted with the device, so every vehicle nearby will know other vehicle’s presence & their movement & will be able to coordinate between each other.
Don’t give car too much intelligent… They will start to kill soon
Autopilot will eventually work sometime in the future. The technology is not mature yet. Will probably require 20 more years and a whole lot more accidents and real world scenarios for the boffins to iron things out. Autopilot will have a better chance of working in an environment whereby all other vehicles are operating on autopilot also and each of the vehicles are ‘talking’ to each other giving feedbacks to each other. Even the road infrastructure has to be providing active feedbacks to make the system work.
Remember the movies, The Fifth Element and Total Recall? Everything was peachy until Bruce Willis (with blond punk hair…mind you) and Colin Farrell decided to disengage autopilot and decided to drive manually.
Breakthrough and innovative technology come with a hefty price tag…..sometimes people have to pay with their lives for the betterment of others.
Autopilot car is ridiculous idea ever even how smart and proven the tech is. This is not enormous space of sky where your vehicle can automatedly propel through this is a street full of obstacles and unpredicted occurrence.
I feel sorry for the guy but I think he deserved it for his negligence as a driver. Is a car not a home theater! Lucky the opposite is a truck what if it’s a white minivan full family with their kids?
Those days cars were mostly mechanicals , real driving experience . Now is all about technology , autopilot system , it’s becoming drive by wire , less fun and expensive as well , including maintenance . Choose wisely , keep your drive fun and simple , not high tech with complication .