The aftermath of the fatal Tesla Model S crash over the weekend in which authorities claim the two victims drove into the passenger seats without anyone behind the wheel continued Monday when two separate federal agencies announced they were sending special investigation teams to Houston – area accident website. Meanwhile, Tesla’s silence over the wreck was broken by CEO Elon Musk (who else) on Twitter (where else), as he claims that data recovered so far from the car does not show that the company’s driver assistance software from the company Autopilot was enabled and that the residential road where the Model S crashed would not be able to activate it in the first place. And following the tweet, local authorities said they were issuing a search warrant to look at the data.
Lots to unpack there. Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are now investigating, and regardless of your opinion on the feds, the quick response here contributes to the rumor that the government can finally prepare real regulatory action on semi-automatic driving. systems such as Autopilot. While this is an extreme example, the tragedy of the weekend in Texas is just the latest incident that the federal investigation has investigated; the NHTSA currently has more than 20 active investigations into Tesla accidents, four of which have been opened in the past two months.
Harris County officials say they are “100 percent sure” that neither of the two men killed in the crash were sitting in the driver’s seat when the 2019 Tesla Model S flew into a residential subdivision of Houston. and hit a large tree and immediately exploded into flames that took firefighters hours to subdue. One victim was found in the passenger seat, and the other one in the back seat. Police claim that it is also backed by witnesses, adding that the deceased, one of whom owns the Tesla, were also heard about running the Autopilot functions, just minutes before jumping into the car for an apparent riding in the area.
Simply put, there is a load of circumstantial evidence, but so far no hard evidence that the Tesla was working on Autopilot when it crashed. Which, of course, means nothing legally. And if the car is mostly burned, chances are the data on board that would give us the answer is completely lost, and all we have are Tesla’s internal records and the word that it is accurate. That’s probably why Musk decided to issue his first statement about the crash in response to a random Twitter user questioning the evidence in a Wall Street Journal story.
“Your research as a private individual is better than professionals [at WSJ]! Data loggers recovered so far show that Autopilot was not activated and that this car did not buy FSD, “Musk wrote. Standard Autopilot would also need to turn on lane lines, which this street did not have. “
Tesla’s eternally ardent defenders online see this as a firm denial; we would notice that the words “so far” work very hard, and also the unspoken technique he claims that Autopilot was not activated at the time of the collision. What about a few seconds before? As for the idea that standard Autopilot will not allow him to use on the road in question or work without someone in the driver’s seat, it is not very necessary to find videos of people easily abusing the system in dangerous situations. ways, or autopilot videos activated on unmarked roads. The safety measures are clearly not enough – unlike GM’s Super Cruise, Autopilot does not monitor the driver’s presence, except that the seat belt must be fastened every 30 seconds and pulled on the steering wheel, and is not limited to physical mapped roads.
That we may only have Tesla’s word for the truth in this accident is also the reason why the Harris County authorities announced late Monday afternoon that they would serve Tesla on Tuesday with a search warrant to obtain and secure the data, according to Reuters. This week will be interesting.
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