Following news of the first-ever fatality involving Tesla’s Autopilot system in Florida, a second and third crash allegedly involving the carmaker’s self-driving feature have been reported in Pennsylvania and Montana, respectively.
In the Pennsylvania incident, a Southfield art gallery owner claimed his 2016 Tesla Model X hit a guard rail, crossed over the eastbound lanes, hit the concrete median and rolled over, ending up on its roof. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is currently investigating the incident.
The driver, Albert Scaglione, told the police that the Autopilot was activated at the time of the accident, a claim that Tesla refutes. In a statement, Tesla said Scaglione’s claims were false based on the vehicle’s logs containing details about the state of vehicle controls, which is capable of indicating whether the car’s Autopilot feature was on or off at the time.
Nonetheless, the Detroit Free Press reports that the police investigator, Dale Vukovich said he will likely charge Scaglione after he completes his investigation, as “there’s not enough evidence to indicate that Tesla’s Autopilot malfunctioned.”
As for the most recent Autopilot-related incident in Montana, another Tesla Model X owner alleged that his car’s Autopilot system failed to detect a wooden guardrail, causing the vehicle to crash into it and going off the road as a result.
Both occupants in the vehicle are reportedly safe following the accident, in spite of the significant amount of damage sustained by the Tesla. A friend of the driver took to the Tesla Motors Club forum to share pictures of the aftermath and convey the driver’s story:
Both 2 people on car survived. It was late at night, Autopilot did not detect a wood stake on the road, hit more than 20 wood stakes, tire on front passenger side and lights flyed away. The speed limit is 55, he was driving 60 on autopilot. His car is completely destroyed. The place he had accident does not have cellphone signal, it is 100 miles from the hotel. We are on a 50 people Wechat messenger group. I woke up today saw he managed to get internet to ask people in the Wechat group to call tesla for assistant.
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When you leave everything to automation, there are bound to be hazards. That is why the steering still exists. Hope we can learn from these incidents and not simply be ignorant. Go Tesla Go!
Tesla already warned their Autopilot feature is on BETA. Owner test at their OWN risk.
Wrong. The terms BETA not the same as referring to typical software which still under R&D status. Tesla mistakes on naming that though which cause the media and consumer doubt. You may check Elon Musk’s further explanation about this.
Not sure how they were driving, but the autopilot is not autonomous driving! You still need to put your hand on the steering and overtake the control when necessary. You can’t depend 100% on it.
And since the auto-pilot is a “Beta” feature, I’m not sure if Tesla should enable it in the first place in a production car. (We don’t use beta software in production environment!)
Misunderstanding on what Beta means to Tesla’s autopilot system: any system with less than 1billion miles of real world driving. Now get it right.
Tesla have to recall & upgrade this system or else us gomen can inform Tesla on track follow VW drama soon