Two men died after a Tesla vehicle, according to authorities, worked without anyone crashing into a tree in the driver’s seat north of Houston on Saturday night.
One of the men was in the front passenger seat and the other one in the back seat of the Tesla, which was traveling at high speed along an arch before hitting a tree at 11:25 p.m., Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman said in an interview.
“Our preliminary investigation determined – but it has not yet been completed – that no one was driving the vehicle,” the constable said. “We are almost 99.9% sure.”
It took emergencies about four hours and about 32,000 gallons of water to put out the fire, Mr. Herman said. On Sunday morning, authorities were still investigating whether the airbag of the front passenger had been deployed.
Neither Tesla Inc., nor the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the leading U.S. car safety regulator, responded immediately to requests for comment.